To the editor:
I am writing to endorse Heide Lambert in her race for mayor of Waldport.
I have known Heide Lambert for six years and worked with her in a variety of capacities and socially as a family friend.
Heide has worked tirelessly to better our community. She has served on the Waldport Planning Commission and as a Waldport City Councilor. She was diligent in her duties and was prepared for discussions and made well-informed decisions in the interest of our city.
Heide also has spent years working for our broader community in her work in Depoe Bay with children in directing a childcare center. She also served as the executive director of Lincoln County CASA and worked tirelessly for children who were caught in the judicial system and needed an advocate.
Heide is committed to making our community the best she possibly can. She will listen to other voices and work collaboratively with the citizens and with the rest of the city council. She is an asset for Waldport and is the best choice we have for mayor.
- Kärun Olson/Waldport
Ask the people of Yachats how she did as city manager. She was a total disaster. She does not have the leadership skills necessary to work effectively with anyone.
The circumstances that Heide Lambert inherited when she was hired as Yachats City Manager were unlike any I’ve ever heard of. I don’t know how this gifted and accomplished professional didn’t walk out on her first day. The people of Yachats know that the situation was not next to impossible. It was impossible altogether. She did not fail Yachats. Yachats failed themselves. They had a very well qualified person at hand and resisted all her attempts to manage the very messed up municipality. Come on, we all know. She stuck it out longer than anyone would have, and she gave 60 days notice (unheard of) when anyone else would have simply walked away.
I’m shocked that Waldport would want a mayor who couldn’t handle being a City Manager. What would she think would be different? Because Dann is an awesome City Manager? I’m sorry, I’d have a hard time trusting that she would be able to work with people if she couldn’t even work with folks in Yachats.
There are plenty of people in Yachats who appreciate Heide Lambert’s effort and it is not lost on most of us that she sacrificed a lot in her attempts to help our city. It is us that let her down. Not the other way around.
I hope the people of Waldport know what they have in Heide Lambert. She is incredibly involved in the community. She has served as a city councilor and on the planning commission. She also has connections citywide as well as with other government leaders throughout the county and state, and understands policy. She has been Executive Director of important, community organizations and has really strong advocacy skills. Heide is a professional person who does more than just “handle” situations.
I’m surprised that Ms. Lambert’s detractors have forgotten that Yachats had no city manager for nearly a year after the resignations of the City Manager Shannon Beaucaire and an Interim City Manager and the withdrawal of the City Council’s first choice for City Manager in a “four-sentence email criticizing the search process as unprofessional.” Ouch, Yachats.
I hope voters think about Heide Lambert’s challenges as a new City Manager with a divided Yachats City Council and staff and an Office with a year+ of Projects on a “To Do” list. Did I mention COVID?
Heide stepped in at an awful time for the City of Yachats. After she resigned, she was rehired as Executive Director of CASA, a job that paid more and with a Team she had built that was united in its mission of service for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. Heide stabilized Yachats and, like all leaders, made a few outspoken enemies along the way.
Waldport is lucky that Heide wants to return to a leadership role as its Mayor after several successful years as a Waldport City Councilor. The problems she faced in down in Yachats as a new and inexperienced city manager are irrelevant to how she will lead as Waldport Mayor. It’s apples and Oranges.
Well, I don’t live in Waldport, but … Lambert sounds like a good fit for the job. I remember hearing really good things about her years ago when she was the executive director of Lincoln County’s Neighbor’s for Kids, then she moved on to running the CASA organization. She obviously has the skill to lead the council. This election is not a popularity contest. It should be about who is best suited to serve in the role and it surely seems to be Lambert.