As the effort to recall all three Port of Benton commissioners moves toward the ballot, two new fronts have opened in the fight: a commissioner-backed committee has formed to stop it, and the port’s suspended executive director is now suing to change how the port investigates her case.

The committee fighting the recall says it’s community-driven. Records show it’s almost entirely funded by commission President Bill O’Neil.

Stop the Misleading Recall formed July 19 and is chaired by retired Benton Franklin Superior Court judge Bruce Spanner. 

The group is “supported by several business owners, former port employees, and community members” and it “intends to defend the work of the current commissioners and explain the difficult decisions they have recently made,” according to a press release from the group.

Bill O’Neil

Spanner chairs the committee, and O’Neil serves as treasurer and its primary financial backer, contributing $2,000 of the committee’s $2,100, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. By Aug. 11, $1,307 had been spent printing campaign signs.

Eugene Pratt, the retired Benton County District Court judge leading the recall effort, criticized O’Neil’s involvement with the committee. 

“The fact that the committee opposing the recall is registered by a sitting Port Commissioner is, in itself, a powerful endorsement of why this recall is necessary,” Pratt said in a statement. “Rather than demonstrating independent public support, it reinforces the perception that those in power are working to protect one another. To many citizens, this only deepens concerns about corruption and the lack of accountability that gave rise to the recall effort.” 

Multiple calls to Spanner for comment were not returned.

O’Neil issued a three-page statement through the committee, defending the commissioners’ actions and pushing back on the recall effort, which he frames as retaliation from ousted officials, accusing them of “fueling the fire” by speaking out against the current commissioners at public meetings.

Among his key points:

• He stands by the suspension of Howard and the termination of former finance director Alicia Myers, saying both actions were taken with the guidance of port legal counsel.
• He said Howard’s suspension was paid, tied to a clause in her employment contract, and intended to allow confidential employee interviews as part of an internal investigation.
• He argued the recall amounts to political retaliation from three former commissioners voted out of office (Roy Keck was defeated by O’Neil in November 2025; Christy Rasmussen was defeated by Scott Keller in 2023; and Jane Hagarty was defeated by Lori Stevens in 2021), saying voters “sent a clear message” by defeating incumbents who had served for roughly 20 years.
• He questioned the motives of Ashley Garza – Pratt’s daughter and a former port contractor – suggesting her friendship with Howard motivated her to pursue the recall.
• He asked the community to look into the issues themselves and to “stop this political nonsense and let us get back to work.”

Joan Wright collects signatures for the recall of all three Port of Benton commissioners. A new committee was recently formed to oppose the recall efforts.  

| Photo by Nathan Finke

Recall update

Meanwhile, the recall effort itself continues to move forward following the Washington Supreme Court’s July decision allowing it to proceed. 

“We have been making good progress,” Pratt said. “… We have standing locations now in Richland and Prosser in addition to our canvassing teams in neighborhoods. People have been seeking us out to sign. We have close to 1,000 signatures collected and being verified.”

Organizers were initially aiming to collect the roughly 4,000 signatures needed for each commissioner by Aug. 27 to make the November ballot, though they have more time available and hope to secure 5,000 signatures for each. 

The recall was motivated by Garza’s concerns about utility issues at the Richland Airport, along with the Howard suspension and Myers firing, which petitioners have characterized as retaliatory.

In March, Benton County Superior Court Judge Diana Ruff struck several charges related to actions Commissioner Scott Keller took before joining the commission. The charges tied to the Howard and Myers personnel decisions were upheld, along with a charge that Keller failed to report his ownership of The Axe LLC, which leases a hangar at the Richland Airport, to the PDC. 

The political action committee supporting the recall, Citizens for a Better Port, had raised $2,925 by Aug. 11, mostly from individual contributions, and spent $1,661 so far on filing fees, legal and regulatory matters, and printing and exhibit designs, according to the PDC.

Howard legal action

While the recall and opposition play out publicly, Howard is pressing her own legal battle after seven months of paid leave.

Diahann Howard

She was suspended Jan. 7 “pending the outcome of an internal review,” the port said in a release at the time – just weeks after commissioners had given her a positive performance review and a raise. An investigation was launched to review employee complaints against Howard, as well as her complaint that the suspension itself was retaliatory.

The port’s hired investigator Lisa Greenfield to look into both matters, said Todd Wyatt, Howard’s attorney, in a legal filing. 

In late April, commissioners voted to pause the investigation into both complaints while appealing the recall to the state Supreme Court. When the investigation resumed in July, commissioners voted to have Goodstein Law Group provide “investigation oversight.”

Wyatt filed a complaint in Superior Court on Aug. 3 raising concerns about that oversight arrangement. He argues pausing the investigation before commissioners were interviewed was a move to protect their own positions, and that Goodstein attorney Carolyn Lake – who represented the commissioners in the recall proceedings – cannot be a neutral party in an investigation that also concerns O’Neil’s own role in suspending Howard.

“An ‘investigation’ into Director Howard by Lake and O’Neil is guaranteed to be a sham and is a violation of her rights,” Wyatt wrote in the complaint.

Wyatt also cited an email from Lake indicating the two complaints will be investigated “sequentially,” meaning Howard’s case will be resolved before her retaliation complaint is investigated, “if at all,” he wrote.

The filing seeks to bar Goodstein Law and Lake from overseeing either investigation; bar O’Neil from overseeing as an investigator; compel the port to hire an independent investigator with no prior ties to current commissioners; and require both complaints to be investigated simultaneously rather than sequentially.

The port, through Lake, filed a response opposing a temporary restraining order, arguing “Howard seeks to stop (the investigation), without factual or legal basis” and “cannot use the legal system to avoid the Port taking reasonable steps to internally investigate complaints raised against her by one or more port employee.” 

Wyatt told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business via email that a court commissioner “reviewed the paperwork and decided there was not a sufficient emergency to issue an emergency order,” but a preliminary injunction hearing will take place later. 

Lake, in a statement to the Journal, said, “Any investigation undertaken by the port will be conducted by an impartial neutral investigator. Other than these statements, because the matter is the subject of litigation, the port has no further comments at this time.”