This two-story package provides an overview of actions taken by management of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority under its first two administrations.The PDA was led in its early years by Dave Robison, who was executive director from 2014 to 2020. The second administrator was Dave Timmons, who took the job after Robison retired and stayed in the position through July 2023. Insiders refer to these administrations as PDA 1.0 and PDA 2.0, with the final administration, led by Celeste Tell, as acting executive director, 3.0. 

Teasing out the details of the financial unraveling of the once-beloved PDA requires looking at each administration. Robison’s tenure was marked by financial missteps and high-stakes borrowing for legacy projects, as well as mushrooming expenses and allegations of financial impropriety. Timmons' tenure can reasonably be seen as clean up.

PDA 1.0: The Robison Years

The PDA began in 2009, when the City of Port Townsend, via its city council members Brent Butler, David King, Laurie Medlicott, Catharine Robinson, George Randels, Michelle Sandoval and Mark Welch, chartered the organization with a focus on Fort Worden, affordable housing and historic buildings. In September 2011, the Port Townsend City Council, then led by King, Medlicott, Kris Nelson, Randels, Robison, Sandoval and Welch, reorganized the PDA as the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Public Development Authority with the “mission to manage, promote, develop, secure funding and enhance Fort Worden State Park.”

As of August 2012, PDA board members included: Bill Brown, Cindy Finnie, Lela Hilton, Gee Hecksher, Anne Murphy, and Scott Wilson.

In 2013, the PDA signed a master lease with the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to operate and manage the properties located within the park’s 90-acre main campus. That area is also known as the “Upper Campus.” At that time, the PDA had 16 full-time employees and a budget of roughly $1 million.

The Robison Era

In May 2014, less than a year later, Robison began his tenure as the PDA’s first executive director. Under Robison, and over the course of five years, the PDA staff and operating budget grew from 14 employees and $1 million in 2014, to 170 employees (during peak season) and a budget of $7 million. PDA leadership at the time began to contemplate big, dynamic, legacy projects and soon thereafter, the borrowing began. In 2015, PDA board members include: Todd Hutton, Jeff Jackson, Jane Kilburn and  Norm Tonina, Herb Cook, Cindy Finnie and Rodger Schmitt of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.

Revenue Bonds

In March 2018, Kitsap Bank and the PDA entered into a revenue bond agreement for $1.6 million to finance energy efficiency and solar improvements at Fort Worden. By 2020, the full bond amount remained owed.

In June 2019, Kitsap Bank and the PDA entered into a second revenue bond agreement, this time for $2 million to fund the glamorous camping (glamping) project. The project was never completed and the tattered remnants of the storm damaged tents remain on the hill above Alexander’s Castle.

Less than a year later, in Dec. 2019, the PDA and Kitsap Bank entered into a third revenue bond agreement, this time for $1.5 million to fund the Makers Square project.

At that point, the revenue bonds totaled $5.1 million.

Bad Audits

The PDA had been on the state’s radar due to bad audits from 2016 and 2017, when state officials found the PDA’s financial statements rife with errors, including cash amounts and deposits that had been misclassified, operating expenses and liabilities that had been understated for 2016 and 2017, $3.5 million of debt that had been issued but was not disclosed and poor internal controls. To compound matters, state auditors said PDA officials submitted the 2017 financial statement 180 days after the mandated deadline. According to state auditors, the 2016 audit was 544 days late. Those late submittals, in part, triggered the State Auditor’s office to open a fraud investigation against the PDA.

Allegations of theft and embezzlement

In 2020, the PDA board launched an investigation into Robison after allegations of embezzlement and a whistleblower alleged that Robison ordered paperwork shredded from the personnel file of Diane Moody, the PDA’s former chief financial officer. Moody was later found guilty of first-degree theft and sentenced in Aug. 2024. As part of the sentencing agreement, the court ordered Moody to pay $40,000 in restitution.

At the time, and beyond concerns with Moody, the PDA board also wanted Robison investigated on allegations he pressured PDA staff to let Moody back into her office to “clean up” files months after she resigned from her post.

A public records request filed by the Leader at the time shows that the board had suspended Robison from signing contracts, leases, licenses operational in construction-related expensed and personnel actions. The suspension coincided with the board’s discovery that the Washington State Auditor’s Office was conducting a fraud investigation and that Moody’s failure to file financial reports had put financing at risk for the PDA’s $12.5 million Makers Square project. Tools and disposable items slated for the glamping project were also disappearing at an alarming rate, according to those records.

Credit Card Expenses

PDA board co-chair Hutton launched an internal investigation of the PDA’s credit card charges. That investigation showed hundreds of dollars in restaurant bills, weekly gas purchases, when it appeared that Robison hadn’t been driving much, and thousands of dollars that had been charged to a Safeway grocery store in Phoenix, Arizona.

Between Oct. 1, 2018 and Sept. 28, 2020, charges on Robison’s PDA credit card totaled $366,332. For the same time period, Moody’s showed charges totaling $81,193.

The PDA board hired a forensic accountant to review credit card charges. That auditor learned there were at least 20 credit cards held by various vendors and employees and some of those cards had balances in the tens of thousands of dollars.

$15.8 million in capital liability

Toward the end of PDA 1.0, the Makers Square project had gone over budget and the PDA’s financial condition had put Historic Tax Credits at risk. By Robison’s retirement on Nov. 15, 2020, there was $15.8 million in capital liability that was then passed on to the new executive director. A press release announcing Robison’s departure reported that Robison was ending his tenure on “a high note.”A records request at the time indicated the board contemplated celebrating Robison on Zoom with a champagne toast and a drive-by parade. A draft proclamation celebrating Robison was also prepared. At the time, Kilburn said she couldn’t support the efforts and she cautioned her fellow board members against being “tone deaf.”November 15, 2020 marked the end of Robison’s tenure and PDA 1.0.

The Perfect Storm

There were three crises that sent the PDA into its downward spiral, said former PDA board member David King.

“There were financial requirements that kicked in within a few years, deferred maintenance requirements, for example and mismanagement, which was real. They were trying to sort things out with the capital projects but they didn’t notice the wastebasket was on fire in the corner of the office.”

And then came the pandemic.

“They were already in trouble when the pandemic hit and the pandemic screwed them completely, in one day, they had no business,” King said.

King, as a board member, became part of the clean-up crew that was tasked with rectifying the financial morass of PDA 1.0. King said the PDA was challenged from its inception, and the PROs Fort Worden Strategic Plan and the PROs Fort Worden Business and Management Plan detail some of the pitfalls the agency would encounter.

“The PROs plan makes it pretty clear,” King said, and that, coupled with “a strong contradiction within the master lease itself” set the stage for a challenging road ahead.

“There were financial expectations that weren’t really up to what a bunch of non-profits could handle,” King said. “When we took on this thing, we didn’t understand what it really cost to run it.”

PDA 2.0: The Timmons Years

Following Dave Robison’s retirement in November 2020, former Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons came out of retirement to help guide the Fort Worden Public Development Administration out of the financial quagmire. Records reviewed by The Leader show the extent to which Timmons, a skilled administrator with decades of experience prior to his 20-year tenure with the city, worked to clean up problems. That involved closing accounts, consolidating loans, and working toward the creation of a viable plan to salvage the PDA.   

This is a summation of what happened during PDA 2.0, as insiders refer to the Timmons’ administration, based on interviews and supported with documentation. 

Board resignations — en masse

Plagued by insurmountable debt, allegations of fraud and embezzlement and scrutiny from the State Auditor’s Office, the PDA board under Robison resigned en-masse. City council then appointed a new board with varying term limits. Those board members included: John Begley, Victoria Brazitis, Nauschard Cader, David King, Brad Mace, Rodger Schmitt, Celeste Tell and Eva Webber.

$15.8 million in capital liability

By the end of PDA 1.0, the Makers Square project had gone over budget and the PDA’s financial condition had put Historic Tax Credits at risk. By Robison’s retirement on Nov. 15, 2020, Timmons tallied $15.8 million in capital liability that was then passed on to him as the PDA’s new executive director. 

Debt breakdown

In 2020, at the start of Timmons' tenure, the known revenue bond debt totaled $5.1 million — $1.6 million for green energy and energy efficiency improvements; $2 million for glamorous camping (glamping) and $1.5 million for the Makers Square project.

In addition, there was $1.4 million in debt linked to the repayment of diverted capital funds and outstanding cash liabilities and contractual obligations to complete two of the PDA key and ongoing capital projects — $2 million for Makers Square, $1.6 glamping, and $300 for the energy projects.

Makers Square — Historic Tax Credits

In addition to the above revenue bond obligations, Makers Square was a quagmire of its own that few outside of Timmons fully understood. First there was a $1.5 million line of credit owed to First Fed Bank, a $1 million bridge loan owed to First Fed Bank that was was required in order to secure a $2.3 million tax credit, $600,000 to cover a state grant and other financial issues. Timmons tallied the total debt at $15.8 million.

Working on a plan

In his time as director, Timmons consolidated the PDA’s capital debt, led the PDA through the State Auditor’s Office audits, secured financial support from Washington State Parks and the Legislature and repositioned Fort Worden Hospitality as a viable concessionaire able to generate revenue.

“I was able to find a way forward to successfully complete Makers Square and eliminate an additional $6.4 million of potential debt liabilities associated with the project,” Timmons said. “When I left, the balance of $1.5 million remained to be repaid by the property leases.”

Timmons said he also suspended any further investment in the glamping project and prepaid $600,000 in existing liability, leaving a balance of $1.4m to be repaid by Hospitality Concession fees.

“When I left, the consolidated debt consisted of Makers Square $1.5 million, energy debt $1.6 million, glamping $1.4 million, refunding capital funds $1.4 million. The total debt was $5.9 million plus prepaid capitalized interest gives you the current balance due.”

During his tenure, Timmons said $9.9 million of PDA liabilities were paid in full, a new debt service account was established to collect funds and service the debt payments along with a $375,000 grant from Jefferson County as additional security for an emergency reserve to service debt.

In addition, Timmons said he worked hard to clean up PDA operations, including credit card debt, past due accounts emergency repairs and other items.

Efforts lauded

When Timmons announced his retirement in 2023, the Leader reported that board member David King and Centrum’s Executive Director Robert Birman lauded Timmons’ and thanked him for his efforts

At the time, Birman said, “I think it’s so easy in this day and age to be a critic. It’s easy also to forget when you stepped up,” Birman said. That was absolutely the worst of times.”