Waldport council will deal with complaints against city manager in December review; accepts councilor resignation

By Lincoln Chronicle staff

WALDPORT – A resignation. A lack of support for the mayor’s request for a third-party investigation of the city manager. A pushback against issuing court subpoenas.

The Waldport city council’s meeting and executive session Thursday continued to wade through a thicket of contentious issues as it awaits the November general election where voters will decide who holds the mayor’s position and three of six council seats.

One of those seats on the ballot belonged to Rick Booth, who resigned at the conclusion of Thursday’s meeting after six years on the council. In a three-paragraph letter, Booth said that after the unsuccessful recall attempt of council members in July he thought “I would be able to stay the course until December when my term ended …”

But he said Thursday that “With the various controversies that continue to rear their heads, it is the best time for me to step aside. I have no more positive words to pass on, nothing to say that is for the good of the order and wishing to remove the bad feelings I carry every day.”

Booth already volunteers for a number of community organizations, is a chaplain for police and fire departments but also resigned last month from the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue board.

Booth’s resignation came after no other council members seconded a motion by Mayor Heide Lambert to hire someone to investigate whether city manager Dann Cutter was on city time and used city computers to do personal research on “private citizens.”

Instead, the council voted 5-1 to approve a motion by Greg Dunn to discuss that issue and review or set up new guidelines for social media activity during Cutter’s annual performance review in December. Lambert voted no, later explaining that she believes the city could be vulnerable to a lawsuit if it disciplined Cutter without evidence from an outside investigation.

The issue arises from complaints by council and city manager critic Todd Swift, the originator of the Waldport Free Speech Facebook site and who is critical of Cutter’s Facebook posts pushing back on allegations from he and others.

Swift also complained that Cutter published his amended complaint and detailed responses of his law enforcement background and issues in the council’s meeting packet in August. But that was the result of Cutter opting for a public hearing of Swift’s and a handful of other complaints against him rather than those be handled in an executive (closed) session.

After the vote on Dunn’s motion, Swift said from the audience that all he is asking for is “an apology and I will withdraw my complaint and walk away.”

The council did push back on a proposed resolution by Cutter to give the city and its new municipal judge subpoena power to compel appearances in court. After several years without one, the city recently hired a municipal judge to handle low-level law enforcement citations and violations of city codes by Waldport’s recently-hired code enforcement officer.

That led council candidate Laura Matthews to make a statement during the public comment period saying a court subpoena should be a last resort after all other remedies are exhausted.

Cutter said the request came from Jesse London, a Eugene attorney hired to conduct once-a-month municipal court sessions. Cutter said without the power to compel people or even sheriff’s deputies to show up in court it can be hard to enforce violations.

Lambert suggested that the council hear from London directly, which Cutter said would be “highly improper” from a “political body questioning a judicial authority.”

Other council members also pushed back, saying they needed more information, ideas what other cities do, and if there were other options before issuing a subpoena.

City office manager Robin Morris said because London has held just two sessions so far the issue is a new one and that there has been one no-show so far.

After more discussion, the council’s consensus was to get more written information from London.

In other business, the council also:

• Heard updates from Cutter on the city’s audits with the 2021 audit expected to be finished in December or January and will be posted on the city’s new website with information and scheduling on the city’s other audits;
• Heard from Cutter that the metal roof on the city-owned Alsea Bay Interpretive Center can’t be repaired after all and that he is seeking information on replacing it with a standard asphalt shingle roof;
• Heard that the city’s new website – once it is built out by January — will also display all public records requests and their responses so that people don’t unnecessarily duplicate requests and that they are available for anyone to see;
• Heard from Dunn, citing recent Facebook comments on the city’s water system and on Cutter’s employment contract, asking that members of the public not make unfounded or incorrect statements on social media but first contact council members or city staff for information. “Do the research,” he said. “Send in questions – don’t accuse with incorrect information.”