By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle
WALDPORT – Any hope Waldport’s mayor and city council would mend fences and have a more amicable relationship following the failed recall effort by the mayor’s supporters were dashed at the start of the monthly council meeting Thursday.
Any hope the mayor and city manager might begin to collaborate in taking on issues facing the city were dashed shortly thereafter.
And any hope the social media vitriol and rancor dividing the community might end was lost in a verbal melee with an audience member that led to the meeting’s abrupt adjournment.
The meeting also included a threat by the mayor to file a grievance against the council, a charge by the city manager that the mayor lied to police, a seemingly failed plea for a truce on social media, and finally the mayor leaving before a scheduled executive session could be held.
The threat
Approving the consent agenda, the minutes and reports from the previous meeting is usually a perfunctory council task prior to getting on with new business.
That did not happen.
Mayor Heide Lambert began by turning to council members to say she wrote a letter expressing a grievance that the subjects discussed during an Oct. 9 executive (closed) session fell outside the required legal notification.
“And I asked for it to be stricken from the minutes,” Lambert said. “I did not receive any comment from council.”
She did get a response from city manager Dann Cutter, Lambert said, who said the proper legal citations had been used. But Lambert insisted it was a discussion for council “So I am opening the floor to either have that discussion now or to strike it from the minutes.”
Lambert said her letter to council spelled out how the executive session did not list all of the state laws necessary to cover all of what was discussed.
She then asked again that council strike the discussion from the minutes, adding “Now, if you don’t want to that, that’s fine. But the Oregon Ethics Commission is involved so …” Lambert said, before listing what topics she believed should not have been discussed.
Councilor Susan Woodruff said the minutes reflected what happened so asked why they should be stricken.
“Because I don’t think that they were listed as executive session correctly,” Lambert said. “I don’t think that these things needed to be discussed in executive session. That’s my grievance with the ethics commission.”
Councilors disagreed, pointing out the city’s attorney was present for the session and that there was no reason to remove the discussion from the minutes.
Lambert replied that it wouldn’t if they struck it from the minutes and then held a new executive session.
“So what you can do is either say no, that you don’t want to amend the minutes, and then that’s when the grievance would go to the ethics commission,” Lambert said.
“So you are threatening us, you are threatening us if we don’t agree with you?” asked councilor Rick Booth.
Lambert replied no, that it was the process.
“I don’t care about your process,” Booth replied. “You just said if we don’t do what you want, you’re going to send it to the ethics commission.”
The discussion ended with council agreeing the proper ordinances had been cited and that Lambert could file a complaint if she wanted.
Discussions during the October executive session did stray off topic at least once, according to those who attended, but it is the responsibility of the meeting’s chair – that’s Lambert — to bring the discussion back on topic or end the session.
The charge
Near the end of the meeting when the city manager was giving his report about ongoing projects in the city, Woodruff asked about a subject raised during the public comment period by Township 13 resident Theresa Carter.
Carter called out the city for leaving a pile of street sweepings on property owned by the city adjacent to the township and near a stream that empties into Lint Slough. The sweepings were removed, but the subject opened a can of worms about fill from the South Crestline Drive sidewalk project being piled on the 14-acre property.
Cutter said the fill will eventually be used as roadbed that will connect with the access road past the city’s water treatment plant. The property is part of 30 acres that includes the plant.
Lambert questioned Cutter’s authority to direct city works department to have the contractor dump the fill – described in October by a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy as “dirt, gravel, grass and some chunks of asphalt piled at the bottom of the road on city property.”
There was more back and forth, including city planner Jaime White assuring Lambert a state permit was not required to dump the debris there.
But the mayor said she was “very concerned council is not getting information.”
Councilors responded that they were not concerned and told Lambert “So leave it that you’re concerned.”
“Okay that’s fair, council’s not concerned the city manager is building a road without engineering using city funds on a property that has not been determined what the use is for,” Lambert responded.
That set off another round of explanation by White, Cutter, councilors and eventually some in the audience to explain to Lambert that engineering plans were not required, the zoning was OK, and no state permit was required.
“Did you not call all the agencies you are concerned about, and I think we heard from them that they are not having a problem?” Woodruff asked Lambert.
Lambert said she had not heard back from any agencies.
But Woodruff said the council had heard back, to which Lambert asked if they had a letter from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Cutter interjected to say “I certainly have a letter from DEQ saying that they didn’t tell you what you told the police officer.”
Cutter was referring to several incidents in October when sheriff’s deputies were called first by Lambert and later by Cutter over the fill dumping and related trespassing by Carter and a Beavercreek-area conservation organization whose leader is Waldport Beachcomber Days secretary TiAnne Rios.
“I didn’t tell the police officer anything other than that there’s an illegal dumping happening,” Lambert said.
“I have an interview with you and Deputy (Abby) Dorsey that says that you were specifically told by DEQ to bring in Protect Oregon Watersheds,” Cutter said. “So are you saying that the deputy is lying.”
Lambert said she did not lie, but that DEQ said there was nothing stopping the watershed group from inspecting the fill to determine if there was a violation. And that while there are no trespassing signs barring entrance to the property, Lambert said Dorsey told her it was public property.
The sheriff’s report
Lambert called the sheriff’s office on Oct. 16 to report the city was dumping debris into the ravine past a private property sign at the north end of Southeast Ball Boulevard, according to a deputy’s report.
But Lambert did not first call Cutter to deal with her concerns.
Instead, Lambert told the sheriff’s office that Cutter was having contractors dump road waste on city property and that it was a DEQ violation, reported Deputy Garrett Brawdy, who advised Lambert that the DEQ generally handles its own investigations.
Lambert told Brawdy that the DEQ instructed her to contact the sheriff’s office, according to the report. Brawdy advised that if the city manager gave permission to dump the fill there was no crime. He then called the DEQ and left a voicemail but told the Lincoln Chronicle last week that he never heard back.
On Oct. 21, the sheriff’s office received a call about trespassing at the site from a nearby resident, who said a group of people were trespassing and then gathered at Carter’s house.
Dorsey contacted Carter, who told her that Lambert had contacted the watersheds group to see if they thought it was creating an environmental hazard and that she believed Lambert gave the group permission to walk on the property.
Dorsey then contacted Lambert, who told her she did contact the watersheds group at the DEQ’s direction. Lambert also said she also contacted Oregon State Police. She also told Dorsey the city property has a public easement and that the trespassing sign is not lawful, according to the deputy’s report.
“At this time there is no probable cause for trespass based on a city official (Lambert) advising the group there was an easement,” Dorsey reported.
There is no public easement, according to Cutter.
The DEQ’s response
Cutter reached out to DEQ officials to ask if they had been contacted by the mayor. He said agency officials confirmed it was not their practice to authorize outside conservation groups to do inspections.
In an email to the city, DEQ drinking water protection specialist Laura Johnson said she talked with colleagues and wrote “… I am not aware of any recommendations that came from DEQ to Waldport’s mayor to bring in an outside organization to address a concern.”
The Chronicle reached out to Lambert on Friday and again Saturday to ask in part whom she spoke with at DEQ, why she believed there was a public easement and whether she gave permission to Protect Oregon Watersheds to access the property?
She was also asked why she left the meeting prior to the scheduled executive session.
Lambert responded late Saturday only to say “It was a very difficult meeting to facilitate, as the community is expressing many feelings” but did not respond to questions about the fill issue, contacting DEQ or leaving the meeting.
The plea, the chaos
Before the close of Thursday’s meeting, council president Greg Dunn addressed fellow councilors and community members to ask for an end to the contentious social media posts that he says have been plaguing community-based Facebook sites for months.
“I’m just asking if we could all take a break,” Dunn said. “We’re in November and December. This is a holiday time. The time to spend with family, to just reflect on all the great things. Let’s just take these next two months and really love each other and see if we can’t not bash each other and just, I call it two months of positive speaking online. Let’s just see if we can do that. Let’s see if we can get past all this.”
This provoked a response from Lambert supporter Melanie Cease, who suggested city officials also stop commenting online. Cease continued to press while getting louder, prompting council members to ask her to stop and eventually turning to Lambert to take control.
“Do your job!” another audience member called out to Lambert, who responded it was her job to listen to what the public had to say. But as the interruption continued Lambert also asked Cease to stop berating the council and Cutter.
Councilor Jerry Townsend jumped in to ask the council to come up with a protocol for hearing and responding to community members’ concerns in hopes of getting away from the rancor dividing the community.
But Woodruff said it was difficult not to respond to social media posts “when people can say anything they want” and that it is often not true or a misunderstanding that needs to be addressed.
That prompted Cease to again jump in to say councilors should be limited to commenting only on the city’s website. As she continued councilors and other audience members wondered if Cease could be removed from the meeting.
“Can you stop her yelling at us,” Councilor Jayme Morris asked Lambert, who responded to Cease “I’m sorry, they’re asking you to stop. I’m sorry.”
The room erupted at that point with everyone talking at once and councilors instructing Lambert to control the meeting. Lambert beat her gavel to quiet the crowd and said “I’m sorry ma’am, you have to stop, everybody’s getting upset with you disagreeing with them.”
That caused yet another eruption by council and audience members, who encouraged Lambert to adjourn the meeting — which she did.
Lambert then left the room and did not return, prompting the council to cancel a scheduled executive session where the subject of trespassing on city-owned property was to be discussed.
City officials have rescheduled the executive session for 4 p.m. Wednesday, with a public session afterwards if there is a decision to be made.
- Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
I have never seen such a poorly managed council meeting as Lambert allowed to happen. While I watched every council member and city employee working to answer questions and trying to understand Lamberts logical, she spoke words that relay she has no interest in resolving any issues past or present.
I only wish the council would have gone on with the executive meeting as they had a quorum and at least something would have been done and decided.
I went to bed a Lambert supporter and woke up a Lambert critic.
Lambert is a nitpicking troublemaker and needs to be recalled.
Oh man, Lambert is the problem – this meeting is clearly showing that. Can you all not see that? She is calling everyone she can to cause trouble for the City. That is not what a good mayor or good councilor does. Especially when it’s clear that she is wrong. Stepping over the city manager’s head and the council? If she has concerns about something the city or manager is doing, talk to the manager or bring it before the council. Going to the cops is not the process. Shame on you Lambert. You almost had me convinced but this meeting, and certainly this article, illustrates that you are the problem.