To the editor
As a former member of the Waldport City Council, I have significant concerns about the current action and inaction of the council.
The city council has abdicated its role of supervision of the city manager and its responsibility for the operation of the city and its obligations to the citizens.
The council has let the city manager hire an attorney without the council interviewing him or setting the criteria for the decision. The council has failed to complete an audit for over four years — the entirety of the employment of Dann Cutter as city manager. The council has trusted the city manager to communicate with multiple auditors and have not directly verified the content of email exchanges regarding the concerns of either the previous auditor or the auditor currently working to complete the 2020 audit.
Personally, I have concerns about the tone the city manager had taken with several citizen volunteers. I understand there are some disagreements that were not being resolved. I texted the city manager and asked him to hire a mediator to help resolve the issues or hire an outside investigator to determine appropriate actions for the council. He insisted that the only result would be for a specific citizen to be arrested and walked out in handcuffs.
His agenda for prosecution of this person has surpassed common sense and become a perseveration. The city council has not been thoughtful about putting the brakes on this consuming chase. This has also led to the inappropriate correspondence from the city manager to the leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians and with District Attorney Jenna Wallace.
I have raised my concerns and they have been summarily dismissed by the council without any effort to investigate. It is for this reason I am asking for each voter of Waldport follow Justice For Waldport at their website or on FaceBook and to sign the recalls for each of the six city councilors at https://www.justiceforwaldport.com/recall/sign-petitions.
— Karun Olson/Waldport
Thank you for your public letter, Karun Olson. It does seem that there is no other remedy for Waldport’s current state of government than to recall the six sitting councilors. They might be good people, but they are not functioning as a healthy council. They’ve done great harm to the city, not to mention individuals and organizations. Maybe not intentionally but their lack of healthy leadership and willingness to support all the city manager’s gaffes has created a mess. I think bringing the recalls to a vote is a good idea.