By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council has taken the unusual step of removing the chair of the city’s Parks and Commons Commission after agreeing that Dawn Keller sent disparaging emails to staff, verbally abused community members, misrepresented her role with the city, and refused to accept the role of the commission within city government.
Keller’s removal came at the end of a four-hour council meeting Thursday. Councilor Ann Stott brought up the issue and made a motion to remove Keller, saying the commission chair had not responded appropriately to requests that she rein in her behavior.
After a 20 minute discussion the vote was 4-1, with Mayor Leslie Vaaler voting no.
“The bigger issue here is the lack of recognition of the role of Parks & Commons in the city’s structure,” Stott said after reading off a list of issues.
The council’s action Thursday prompted the resignation Friday of commission vice chair Linda Johnson, who was an occasional supporter of Keller’s on commission votes. The commission – which now has four of seven authorized members – meets again at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Keller and Johnson both declined comment to YachatsNews.
Issues brewing for months
Commission members elected Keller as chair in January when former chair John Purcell’s term expired and others declined the job. Keller had been on the commission for two years and ran unsuccessfully for the City Council last November.
Issues with Keller and within the commission had been brewing for months.
In December, Keller was on the short end of a 6-1 commission vote recommending to the City Council that Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program be able to rent the former city offices in the Commons. That would allow the only pre- and after-school program in the Yachats area to move its operations from the basement.
Keller ignored that decision, including sending emails to the YYFAP board alleging that it did not have a valid rental agreement with the city, suggesting it consult an attorney and threatening to go public with a variety of other allegations.
Twice this year commission member Craig Berdie had to write to the mayor and City Council to say that Keller had misrepresented commission decisions in memos to the council. At its last meeting in June, Berdie verbally admonished Keller for continuing to pursue issues as commission chair that the group had not approved.
The city closed the Commons in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and didn’t reopen it until late June.
During the closure, Keller advocated forming a nonprofit to operate the Commons, instead of the city, and use volunteers to staff it. Other commission members were never enthusiastic about that idea or endorsed it – yet Keller began telling people – including the interim city manager — that the commission, not the city, was in charge of the Commons.
Those simmering issues came to a head on Memorial Day when the Commons opened briefly and a pickle ball group got a key to use the multipurpose room. Keller noticed them inside and either talked with the players or confronted them — there are conflicting accounts of that — and made disparaging remarks about city staff.
She also emailed critical comments to deputy city recorder Kimmie Jackson. Commission and council rules say any such issues are supposed to be communicated to the city manager not staff.
Then in late June, a column Keller wrote for the city’s July newsletter about commission work was deemed inappropriate and not published.
Warning from mayor
Stott – who is the council’s representative to the Parks & Commons Commission – first brought the issues to Vaaler.
Vaaler met with Keller on June 14 to discuss the issues and followed up with an email, specifically asking her to avoid comments on behalf of the city. “Commissioners do not make statements that put the city at risk,” Vaaler said Thursday, quoting part of her email.
Vaaler said she appreciated Keller’s hard work and energy.
“Has she worked flawlessly? No,” Vaaler said. “I warned her and I haven’t seen her violate that warning.”
Councilor Greg Scott, who later asked that the vote be delayed for three weeks, said he had “counseled” Keller on the problems. “She listened but I don’t think she was following that advice,” he said.
“She does come with a lot of passion and energy … and I respect that,” Scott said. “But I am concerned about reports I keep hearing … the discussions with staff are particularly troubling for me.”
In addition to public criticisms of staff, Stott said her other concern was that Keller continues to tell people that the Parks & Commons Commission and not the city is in charge of the Commons and its finances.
Stott said she called Keller two days before the council meeting to talk about issues and let her know about Thursday’s motion to remove her from the commission. Keller did not attend the online meeting.
“I listened to her. We had to agree to disagree on a few accounts,” Stott said. “She does know that this was going to come up in today’s meeting.”
Stott said Keller’s issues were clear in the six meetings the commission has held this year.
“The commission is not functioning as it should be because the chair sees a mission for the commission that isn’t reality,” Stott said. “She wants to have complete control over policy, she wants to control the money over the Commons.
“She told Katherine, our city manager, that the city no longer controls the Commons.”
