The Port of Grays Harbor mission statement is, “To best utilize our resources to facilitate, enhance and stimulate international trade, economic development and tourism for the betterment of the region.”

“In my view this includes safeguarding our environment, that has to be a big part of that,” said Tom Quigg, Port Commissioner 2. “Given that mission statement, the role of a Port commissioner is a big responsibility and can’t be taken lightly. There are a lot of jobs that rely on the decisions that are made at the Port of Grays Harbor, so we have to be mindful of that in everything we do.”

Quigg, a longtime businessman in real estate, particularly commercial real estate, was appointed to the commission in November 2018, chosen among seven applicants to fill the seat left vacant when longtime Commissioner Jack Thompson died while on Port business in Chile the previous month. Quigg is running to retain that seat against challenger Tim Carr. Both candidates were invited to participate in an editorial board interview with The Daily World, but Carr did not reply to numerous calls and emails asking for his participation.

“The Port is one of the major economic drivers in the community,’ said Quigg. “The Port doesn’t hire a lot of people but the jobs that are connected in some way or another to the Port are significant.”

Quigg referenced numbers from one report done around 2013 that estimated there are 5,700 jobs that have some connection to the Port. Those numbers didn’t include the Satsop Business Park, where tenants have an estimated 300 to 400 employees between them.

The job of a Port Commissioner is to set policy, said Quigg.

“We don’t get involved in operations,” he said, relying instead on Port staff to do the jobs they were hired to do. Commissioners do represent the Port when asked, but it’s the staff that does the heavy lifting of going out and attracting outside investment in Port properties. It’s this outside investment that drives the Port, said Quigg.

As for his desire to be a Port Commissioner, he said “my background is really well-suited for this position. I grew up in the maritime business, it’s been my whole life.” Quigg was also involved in the formation of a county economic development council in the 1980s, and was a founding member of the Grays Harbor Shipping Club, “which was put in place to create a coalition of shippers, public officials and labor to support Deeper Draft in Grays Harbor,” he said. Deeper Draft was a decades-long effort to deepen the Grays Harbor navigation channel, completed this past year.

Quigg said some of the most productive input he’s received as a commissioner has come from the commission’s public meetings, particularly the workshops, which give participants an opportunity to interact directly with the commission about their concerns and observations of Port facilities and activities.

“There’s a reason for open public meetings and it’s the right reason,” said Quigg. He talked about a recent commission meeting in Westport, where “about half the meeting was a workshop, an open meeting, an open discussion with the commission, and it was really refreshing. People raise their hands and want to participate in it and I think that’s a good thing.”