Waldport city manager Dann Cutter, left, goes over the highlights of the 2026-27 budget during the city council’s meeting Thursday. (Garret Jaros/Lincoln Chronicle)By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle
WALDPORT – The Waldport City Council unanimously approved several budgets for fiscal 2026-27 at its monthly meeting Thursday despite a late announcement by Mayor Heide Lambert that she would not attend in protest of a host of issues.
Lambert sent emails detailing her reasons for not attending to the city and council and posted them on her personal Facebook page just three hours before the meeting.
In her statement, she cited concerns regarding transparency, fiscal oversight and the budget process. She took issue with a community member being charged a fee for a records request, what she called a lack of clear reporting on multi-million-dollar grant-funded capital projects, and not being able to review the past several years of audits which are being completed by an auditing firm.
LambertLambert added that she received medical advice not to attend due to stress-related health concerns over the ongoing contentious atmosphere with fellow council members and allegations circulating on social media of past wrongdoing by a councilor. The Lincoln County clerk is currently verifying recall petition signatures for six council members that were collected by Lambert’s supporters.
Lambert asked that her statement be read into the meeting record. It was not.
The city posted a response to the accusations – which it characterized as “misstatements” – on the city’s website.
Despite the distraction, the council approved budgets for a road district, the urban renewal district, the city, and a resolution to accept state revenue sharing. Lambert had voted against all of them at the budget committee’s April 25 meeting.
“Nobody in history has ever turned down state revenue sharing,” city manager Dann Cutter told the Lincoln Chronicle. “That is the state giving you money.”
In his budget message, Cutter said the city’s balance sheet remains healthy, and even with pressure from legal issues this year overall spending is consistent with previous years.
The 2026-27 spending plan proposes no major initiatives, Cutter said, as the city completes the last in a series of large projects and takes a breather before diving into the next round of capital efforts. With expected proceeds from Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue buying the city’s fire station later this year and other income, Cutter expects the city to have nearly $2 million in2027-28 with which to seek matching grants and pay down debt.
Overall, Cutter told the council that the city has managed multiple major capital projects, with significant improvements to the sewer system at the industrial park and waste treatment plant, completion of the sidewalk project along Crestline Drive and is nearing completion of Louis Southworth Park. It is also in the middle of the drinking water protection plan, has applied for small grants to plan the next round of construction projects, and has finished water tank projects.
Cutter said the budget begins with an approximate balance across all funds of just over $3 million and the city expects to collect an additional $3 million through various revenue streams.
The budget has various funds, Cutter said, which include the utility fund – water, wastewater and streets; the general fund which handles most of the operations at the administrative level as well as library, parks, planning, public safety and community outreach. Water and wastewater are “enterprise funds” that must be self-supporting. The city uses utility rates to meet the obligations of those funds.
Utility rates
Four years ago, the council adopted a rate plan to address a chronic deficiency in reserve funding and 2026-27 is the final year of that plan. Although it has been a challenge each year as the city raises water and sewer rates beyond the rate of inflation, Cutter said the program hit its financial targets. Beginning in fiscal 2027-28, Cutter said, the city should be able to have fee increases just match inflation, unless council decides otherwise.
The projected water/sewer rate increase for 2026-27 is 2.6 percent to match inflation and a final 3 percent increase to fully fund the reserve program. For the average water and sewer customer, Cutter said, the increase is about $5.80 a month.
Funding requests
The largest funding request was from the Waldport Chamber of Commerce for $59,000, which includes $4,000 in general support, $35,000 for interpretive center staffing, $10,000 in tourism promotion and advertising, and $10,000 for events. The chamber’s request is an increase of nearly $10,000 over last year.
“While substantial, please keep in mind that transient rental tax receipts have grown substantially, and there is an obligation under the state funding rules that these funds go to the exact thing the chamber does,” according to the budget report.
The contract with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to provide deputies in Waldport will be $291,000 for 2026-27 for the hours of 1.5 deputies. Cutter said nearly 50 percent of property taxes that the city collects goes to the contract. The city has an agreement to share deputy hours with Yachats, with that city getting one half of one deputy’s time.
Financial audits
The city is several years behind in audits, but the company hired to complete them, Umpqua Valley Financial, finished the 2021 draft audit Wednesday. It will be reviewed by the council in June.
“We’re very happy with how that audit came out,” Cutter said. “It was very much in line with what we kind of expected based on the budget from back then. And now that they have a foundation, we should see a lot faster results on future audits …”
Cutter said there is some confusion as to how the city can proceed with budgeting and predictions without the audits being finished. He said the city uses sophisticated software to track funds, expenditures and bank balances. And that while he expects the audits may show an expenditure was incorrectly placed in one expense code versus another, the funds come out of the same bank accounts, which are reviewed independently each month.
“But overall, we’ve got a pretty solid budget moving forward,” Cutter told the council. “I will say that there are likely going to be some changes that are within the allowed budget changes by August. And this will have to do with some hiring, as we hire people and move people around … and I will talk about that at the council meeting in June.”
- Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for the Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]
So now not only is the mayor causing and continuing to cause and support disruption to city operations, she is now not performing her responsibilities and duties as a member of the council because why? Her health? Step down then. It’s just an excuse for her to continue to get her supporters to go “Poor Heide and this is why the evil six and city manager must go.” Obviously Heide doesn’t understand public records law or budget law because nothing she’s complaining about is wrong. She just wants your sympathy. And she’s, unfortunately, getting it. I wish I lived in Waldport — boy would you all be hearing from me and couldn’t claim I didn’t have a right to. I’ve been watching this since the beginning. While the council and city manager didn’t handle things exactly the way they should have and the city manager should have been told by the council to get off social media, Heide and her supporters are wrong and they are the reason for the fragmentation that is Waldport.
Great article and a great comment. Thanks.
Well said Ann.
I keep smelling the scent of padding her income here. She gets mad about this hostile work environment with no acknowledgement that she herself created it in the first place. So let’s use all the right buzz words so we can slap the city and personal citizens with lawsuits that will give her something to go travel on once she destroys as many cities and people as possible. Great plan.
This is all beyond tiresome. Here we have an elected official (who somehow got elected in Waldport after pulling more or less the same nonsense in Yachats) who has elevated incompetence and dysfunction into a half-witted grift. Who is also earnestly supported by other half-witted grifters who got caught.
So, her leadership model appears to be: sow dissension where there is none, thereby temporarily directing attention away from her incompetence as a leader and mayor, then redirecting inquiries into her activities into a crusade about How Unfair Everything and Everyone Is to Her. Then pursuing litigation due to All This Unfairness, then seeking medical attention for the mental anguish All This Unfairness has caused and is causing her.
Folks, it has never been about public service. It has always been about how she can get paid without having to actually do much of anything, with a generous side of performative aggrievement. It used to be a rare thing to see someone without shame, integrity, and character put it all on parade for all to see.
Right on Sid. All about suing for money, not about Waldport at all.
Yup….only here to keep taking while playing “victim”. She has done nothing for Waldport but lie and support the harassment of our city staff and their families.
Very accurate article. Thanks for sharing. Makes one wonder where did the people who actually signed the recall petition come from? Anyone who has been following the ongoing chaos in Waldport can clearly see where the real issue lies.
Mayor Heide Lambert continues to be at the center of the division and dysfunction. If she cannot effectively do the job or make decisions that are truly in the best interest of Waldport, then it may be time for her to step aside and allow someone else to lead. Do what is right for Waldport not yourself or your few supporters.