By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – A Yachats councilor asked one of the city’s most active commissions Tuesday for a little more patience and a bit more time to allow its new city manager to catch up with issues and new city hall staff to learn their jobs.
But that did little to mollify members of the city’s Park & Commons Commission, who were critical of little communication from city manager Heide Lambert, no communication from a newly hired Commons manager and a lack of support or understanding from the city council for proposed projects the commission has worked on for years.
Commission chair George Mazeika and most commission members said they were disappointed that Lambert and city events manager Michelle Stout had not talked to them about their mission, goals and even what Stout was supposed to do in her new job.
“I can only express my strongest frustration that we are being ignored,” Berdie said, drawing quick agreement from Mazeika.
“I have no idea why the city manager has not spoken to this commission,” said Mazeika, who announced his resignation for health reasons at the start of the meeting. “This is a collaboration. We need to know how to support the manager and the city.”
For example, Berdie said, the commission spent “considerable time” since the fall working on a job description for a Commons manager only to learn weeks ago that Lambert had hired Stout to oversee events in the facility and work on code enforcement. Stout has not attended the two monthly commission meetings since she was hired.
“It’s not like we haven’t been trying to help,” Berdie said. “We were never even told someone was hired and what the job was. It’s basic communication.”
Yachats has an unusual form of government that draws heavily on volunteers on four commissions – Parks & Commons, Public Works & Streets, Library, and Planning – to do much of the work that employees would do in larger cities or organizations. Those commissions then make recommendations for projects that go to the city manager and then – usually — to the council.
But three city managers – permanent or interim – the past two years and at times just one other employee in city hall has meant few, if any, projects got done. In the meantime, Parks & Commons continued to work on proposals – everything from $3,000 bike racks to a $400,000 rebuild of the Little Log Church Museum to a $1 million boardwalk — and waiting for a new city manager, council approval and enough staff to possibly launch them.
Lambert started Feb. 14 and almost immediately halted the commission’s engineering proposals for the Little Log Church, but threw her support to develop plans for a greenspace project behind city hall.
Commission members are upset that even smaller projects it had proposed to the city’s Capital Improvement and Finance committees were pushed out one or two years last month by the city council. But no Parks & Commons members attended those committee or council meetings to explain or defend their projects.
The city’s budget committee – five citizens and five council members – is scheduled to begin deliberations on Lambert’s proposed 2022-23 budget at 9 a.m. Monday. That budget contains the capital improvement projects OK’d last month by the council.
Councilor Ann Stott, who is the council’s liaison to the Parks & Commons Commission, urged members to show up and make their case to the budget committee. But commission members said nothing, including a proposed budget and meeting times, has been made public — leading facilities manager Neal Morphis to quickly post the meeting times on the city’s community calendar.
Stott repeatedly defended Lambert. She said the first-time city manager walked into an office 2½ months ago where there was little organization and employees, had to begin learning issues, hire and help train people, prepare a 2022-23 budget and deal with two lawsuits and an Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries investigation involving two former staffers, including one seeking records going back 10 years.
“I’m sorry, but you need to take a step back and give her time,” Stott told the commission. “It’s so easy for someone on the outside to judge, but sitting in the city manager’s shoes will give you a whole different perspective.
“Please be respectful of this person who you have no idea of what she’s going through,” she said. “You need to realize that we put her in an impossible situation.”
When the council last month delayed several proposed Commons projects, it also asked that the commission develop a five-year plan for the facility and surrounding grounds. But commission members said they had to learn of that by reading YachatsNews and did not get an explanation from the city manager or a council member.
Stott is also pushing for a community meeting in June where residents can talk about what they see as the Commons’ best use. While commission members agreed that could be helpful, they urged people to read a history of the Commons, for the city to do a deeper survey of residents and property owners, and to look at how other small cities manage their public facilities.
“The (Parks & Commons) commission has already figured much of this out …” Berdie said, asking that the group be involved in helping organize and host any meeting.
Stott repeatedly complimented the commission for its hard work, but continued to ask it give Lambert a bit more time.
“Give her a couple more months?” asked Michael Hempen.
“It’s frustrating as hell,” Stott answered. “But a pause would be great. July would be fine.”
What are the two lawsuits and the investigation concerning? Maybe Yachats should reconsider how they run the city. They have had nothing but problems the last few years getting anyone to get anything accomplished except bickering back and forth.