The turmoil at Waldport city hall has reached Salem and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
On Friday, the commission took up complaints that the city’s notice to Mayor Heide Lambert and City Manager Dann Cutter prior to two April 3 executive (closed) sessions and one special meeting did not meet state open meetings law requirements explaining rules or options for hearings.
After confusion in media reports this week, the commission director and investigator clarified Wednesday that the complaint alleging that Lambert received inadequate notice was moot because she decided not to fight her expulsion in executive session but chose to have her hearing in public.
Instead, it will move to a formal investigation involving a very technical Oregon Public Meetings law issue to see if the council and Cutter did the notice properly for his own executive session where councilors discussed – and cleared him of – citizen complaints against him.
The complaints were made April 29 by Tony Thimakis of Waldport, who last week filed petitions to begin the recall process of five of six council members.
The commission did agree to investigate Councilor Greg Dunn for a complaint that he did not declare a potential conflict of interest during 2024-25 budget deliberations that his pest control company occasionally did business with the city.
Dunn appeared remotely during the commission’s daylong meeting Friday to say that the city does not have a contract with his company, occasionally calls to have something done, and that he declared a potential conflict during deliberations on the 2025-26 budget just in case.
“I don’t think I’ve violated anything,” Dunn told the commission. “I think I’ve been totally honest.”
Even if a violation was found, commission chair Dave Fiskum explained to Dunn on Friday, the most likely outcome would be a “letter of education.” The commission routinely sends those letters to public officials found to have violated technical aspects of meetings or records laws or conflicts of interest rules.
- Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle
