WALDPORT – There appears to be no end to court-ordered restraining orders now bouncing around Waldport involving city politics – with two of the three stemming from confrontations at the Moose Lodge.
The latest involves Tony Thimakis, the leader of a city council recall effort, who now has a court-ordered restraining order against him after a dustup in July with 83-year-old Nita McDonald at the lodge’s bar.
Lincoln County Circuit Court presiding judge Sheryl Bachart issued the order Aug. 26, the same day McDonald filed her elder abuse complaint. The order prohibits Thimakis from going into the Moose Lodge but also from attending Waldport city council meetings.
It is the third such order issued by judges in August, including:
Aug. 20: Tania Vera of Tidewater received a stalking protective order against Waldport Beachcomber Days secretary TiAnne Rios of Seal Rock. Vera alleges that Rios began harassing her after she was kicked out of the Wednesday market a year ago, continued to threaten her, attacked her on a local Facebook page, and culminated with a June confrontation at the Moose Lodge.
Aug. 13: Rios asked for and received a protective order against city manager Dann Cutter after she said his statements online and in public meetings constituted elder abuse. The judge’s order restrained Cutter “from abusing, intimidating, molesting, interfering with, or menacing” Rios and knowingly being within 150 feet of her.
In her restraining order request, McDonald said she was getting a soda at the Moose Lodge’s bar in July when Thimakis began berating her.
“Multiple people had to intercede as I am an 83-year-old woman who just had heart surgery,” McDonald wrote. “When asked to stop, Mr. Thimakis stated ‘You can’t stop me’ and continued his verbal assault, causing me to fear physical harm.”
In her request, McDonald also said Thimakis attacks her in Waldport community Facebook forums over her defense of city council members subject to his recall effort. “His campaign of intimidation continues whenever I try to exercise my rights of free speech,” she wrote.
Is anyone else getting the impression from stories in recent months that the Beachcomber Days organization is completely toxic?
It looks as if no one in Waldport has freedom of speech and that elder abuse laws are being used more like “elder is uncomfortable so elder may express his/her opinions, but others may not”. With all these restraining orders floating around, how does the city even function?
Lee, my friend,
I knew nothing about Waldport politics until they fired the Mayor.
Like you, I read the Lincoln Chronicle and had seen worrisome articles about Beachcombers this Spring.
But I was stunned to read in April 2025 that the Council fired the Mayor, rather than censure her as the Charter also allows, based on the pretext that she was “directing staff” by asking to see the 12 Formal Complaints. As has also been reported, these Complaints were about the City Manager and had been sent to Mayor Lambert at City Hall. The City Manager had directed City staff to give him the letters after they emailed copies to the Council, but not the Mayor.
Of course, the Mayor wanted access to the letters! Were it me, I would be livid, yelling through the glass window that separated the public area from the staff, and wondering “why?” If you listen to the audio of the public hearing on the two Staff Complaints, you will hear that most of the discussion was about “Yachats” and Beachcombers, not about what happened with the City staff. When the judge issued her Order temporarily reinstating the Mayor, she scheduled a hearing and ordered the City to provide a certified copy of the audio of the public hearing. As you know, the Council voted to rescind the expulsion vote rather than provide the judge with the evidence she requested. A reasonable conclusion, based on the City’s conduct, is that the two Complaint letters filed by City staff provided a pretext to fire her for “directing staff” and setting the stage for the eventual expulsion.
I have not read the letters, but have confirmed that some (all?) of the letters were from Beachcomber volunteers. The Council, as reported in the Chronicle, spent 1 hour in an Executive Session investigating the claims by talking with the City Manager. They did not contact the Complainants for further questioning or for documentation to substantiate allegations before dismissing all twelve as unsubstantiated.
I believe the Council was predisposed against anything or anyone that disrupted its narrative of corruption and criminality involving the Beachcomber Board. I believe the Councilors did not trust the new Mayor because she was not a party to their 2024 directive, according to the City Manager’s email to the DA, that he investigate Beachcombers. On the other hand, her opponent was on the Council and voted to support the investigation.
I have reviewed records documenting the obstacles the City Manager, at the implicit behest of the Council, faced in obtaining the Special Events permit for Beachcomber Day on June 14, 2023. Volunteering as a liaison between Beachcombers and the City and then as the liaison between the Beachcomber Board and their attorney, the only lawlessness and toxicity I saw was from the City Manager as the agent of the Council.
The City Manager will deny this, but he was making new demands for insurance, licensing, and indemnification agreements of third parties until June 12, two days before the opening day of June 14.
Read the paragraph below from the Beachcomber attorney’s final letter, dated June 12, to the Waldport City Manager and the City Attorney, and judge for yourself where the toxic lawlessness lies:
“What confuses me is the city’s reluctance to read the Waldoort Municipal Code. When it comes to municipal law, the only thing that matters is the code. The city’s authority begins and ends with the Code. We are not a nation of kings, as we have heard so often in the ‘news’ lately. So when I receive emails from the city that lack reference to the Code, they are just white noise to me.”
The Council sets the tone. This requires oversight of the City Manager. If the tone is toxic, look to the Council. The buck stops there.
Dear Monica,
Your long comment does not address what I believe is the root issue, what you call the “narrative of corruption and criminality” involving Beachcomber Days. What I’ve read in the Lincoln Chronicle and it’s predecessor the Yachats News certainly left reason to question the financial competence and honesty of the organization and at least one of its officials. From that perspective it seems to me the city manager and city council are acting to protect the city.
And I think the failure to turn over the recording was not for the reason you stated but for a reason you mentioned in a previous comment, namely, the legal precedent of another city being slapped down in court for trying to do the same thing or something similar as Waldport firing the mayor.
I’m not a lawyer like you nor an expert in legal niceties, and I certainly wouldn’t argue against any city government needing to follow the law. But I still have seen nothing to convince me that the city manager and city council are doing anything other than trying to protect the city’s interests.
Spot on. I believe you have a good understanding of the issues.
You nailed it Lee
They have been crooked, stealing money, awarding scholarships to family members and unethical with Wednesday market. They are causing such a stink just to cover their own transgressions.