Recall complaints filed to oust entire Benton port board over misconduct claims
Recall complaints have been formally filed in Benton County against all three members of the Port of Benton Commission.
The recall comes after Commissioner Scott Keller largely escaped consequences from his fellow commissioners after an outside investigation by a law firm concluded he violated port policies and state law making deals for himself and a relative at the expense of the port.
A retired Tri-Cities judge is serving as the effort’s top officer.
Eugene Pratt, 79, a retired Benton County judge, and his daughters, Ashley Garza, a former Port of Benton contractor, and Alison Moore, a retired Benton County sheriff’s deputy, initiated removing Commissioners Keller, William “Bill” O’Neil and Lori Stevens from office.
“I have a particular distaste for public corruption,” Pratt told the Tri-City Herald earlier this week.
Citizens for a Better Port registered as a political action committee with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission on Feb. 17 to support the recall.
Two days later, three individual voters representing each of the port’s three commissioner district filed recall complaints and 190 pages of supporting evidence with the Benton County Auditor’s Office.
Marie Noorani, a Richland artist, signed the complaint targeting Bill O’Neil.
“The power of elected officials is granted by their constituency, and those constituents have the right to take back that power if it is misused,” Noorani told the Tri-City Herald.
The complaint targeting Scott Keller was signed by Steve Goheen, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
“I have little hope that he (Keller) will do the right thing and resign,” the complaint said.
The complaint targeting Lori Stevens was signed by Rachel Mercer, a Prosser wine industry leader.
“It is my hope that Ms. Stevens will simply resign her office as Port Commissioner,” she wrote.
The petitioners are represented by Richland attorney Doug McKinley, who played the same role in the successful 2013 recall of three Richland School Board members.
Broke the law
The recall effort comes after a shift on the board of commissioners in January that’s led to a high-profile removal of top port executives and a decision to essentially ignore an outside investigation’s conclusion that Keller broke the law several times both as a port employee and later, as its executive director.
Keller retired as the port’s executive director unexpectedly in 2019 and returned four years later when he won a seat on the board.
O’Neil, an ally of Keller, defeated longtime Commissioner Roy Keck in November.
He took office at the first meeting of the year and was immediately selected to serve as the commission’s president.
In less than two months, the commission has voted unanimously to suspend its executive director, Diahann Howard, with no explanation, and it fired its newly hired finance director, Alicia Myers.
The commission came under fire after it opted to take little action in January when a 21-page report by law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt found that Keller violated port policies and state law both as a port employee and later as an elected commissioner.
‘Stop looking backwards’
On Jan. 13, with Keller sitting silently nearby, Stevens and O’Neil voted to censure him for the port policy violation but took no action on the more serious allegations. Those involved misuse of public funds and knowingly using water obtained through an illegal water connection to his private hangar at the port-owned Richland Airport.
On Wednesday, Keller told the Herald he could not comment on the recall without seeing what it said. However, he told the Herald it is time to look ahead.
“(I)f it is based on the complaint filed by an ex-commissioner recently defeated in re-election, those alleged acts occurred decades ago, and none while I served as a commissioner. Now is the time to stop looking backwards and instead look forward and concentrate on the real business of the port,” he said in a written statement.
“I appreciate and am excited to be part of a united Commission and port management which now is dedicated and focuses on increasing the economic wellbeing of our community,” he wrote.
O’Neil and Stevens did not respond Wednesday to requests to comment on the pending recall effort.
Pratt said he agreed to be the face of the recall campaign after his daughter, Ashley Garza, worked as a contractor for the port.
She was responsible for surveying port properties and compiling records of leases and contracts.
In that role, she found questionable leases and contracts. She routinely consulted with her father on legal matters.
“Sweetheart deals” have no place in public agencies, Pratt said.
Last week, Pratt introduced himself to the Port of Benton board when he gave a blistering takedown of its handling of the Schwabe findings during a regular board meeting.
“I’m appalled that there has been zero action taken by Commissioner Stevens and Commissioner O”Neil to ensure accountability or rectify the misuse of public funds. Rather, the response has been to justify the actions and protect the guilty,” he told commissioners.
The port employs 22 people, has a $26 million annual budget and collects $3.3 million in property taxes. It serves an area from Richland to Prosser and includes much of western Benton County.
It operates business parks, two airports, Crow Butte Park and works to attract industry.
The investigation
Last fall, the port hired Schwabe via its own law firm, Gravis Law, to look into 24 allegations contained in two complaints involving Keller’s time as a port employee and as a commissioner.
Then-Commissioner Keck instigated one complaint. Howard compiled the other allegations and forwarded them to the commission.
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt found four of the allegations had merit.
It said Keller violated state laws concerning gifts of public funds and engaged in self-dealing for his own personal hangar at the port-owned Richland Airport and made a below-market lease deal with a cousin for the 55 acres of port-owned land that constitute Buckskin Golf Club.
Pratt said his family will manage any donations and the state disclosure requirements for political action committees.
His daughter, Alison Moore, is a former Benton County sheriff’s deputy who continues to work in security. She is treasurer.
Pratt spent 39 years as a judge before he retired from the Benton County District Court bench in 2009. He and his wife live in West Richland with Moore and her husband.
Voters in Benton County have recalled four elected officials in less than six years.
They ousted Sheriff Jerry Hatcher in August 2021, and in August 2024 voters recalled three Richland School Board members, Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams.
How recalls work
Here are the next steps in a recall process, under Washington state law.
- The sponsor files charges against the elected official with the county auditor.
- The auditor serves a copy of the charges on the official.
- The auditor certifies the charges.
- The county prosecutor prepares a ballot synopsis within 15 days. The synopsis can be up to 200 words.
- The prosecutor’s office certifies the synopsis and transmits it to the sponsor and to the official being targeted for recall.
- The prosecutor’s office also forwards the synopsis to the local Superior Court, along with a petition to the court to approve the synopsis and to determine if the charges are sufficient to proceed.
- A hearing is scheduled in Superior Court, with notice given to both the sponsor and the target of the recall. The court could require legal briefs.
- The judge determines if the complaint is sufficient and if the synopsis is adequate. The judge may correct the synopsis.
- If the recall survives legal review, sponsors have 180 days to collect signatures on petitions to put the recall before voters.
- Petitions are filed with the auditor to determine if the petitions have enough valid signatures to proceed to the ballot.
- If petitions have enough valid signatures, the auditor sets a date for an election. The number of signatures needed is based on turnout of the last commissioner election.
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 4:57 PM.