Waldport council criticizes county over sheriff’s contract — proposes splitting second deputy with Yachats

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNew

WALDPORT – Decades of Waldport employing two sheriff’s deputies may have come to an end. Maybe.

The Waldport city council held a special meeting Monday to decide how to proceed after Lincoln County commissioners rejected a proposed $450,000 plan that would have kept two contract deputies in Waldport while adding one for Yachats.

That proposal, backed by both cities and Sheriff Curtis Landers, asked commissioners to consider lowering the contract amount paid by Waldport by approximately $66,000 to $300,000 while adding Yachats at a cost of $150,000.

Landers proposed absorbing any cost overruns incurred by the county during the proposal’s first year — a test year for Yachats — in the sheriff’s 2024-25 budget.

In rejecting the plan during its June 26 meeting, commissioners countered with a contract that would have Waldport paying $366,275, and then moved to propose a $222,760 contract — including one-time startup costs — to Yachats for its first deputy.

The county estimates the full cost of a single deputy to be about $183,000 a year.

Accepting the higher contract would mean the cities have to find additional money because both allotted enough to cover the $450,000 proposal in their 2024-25 budgets.

Waldport’s 2023-24 contract with the sheriff’s office ended Sunday. Landers, who initially told commissioners no deputies would be assigned to Waldport beginning Monday – except for Wednesday night’s fireworks show – unless an agreement was reached, decided to continue providing two deputies to Waldport until the issue is resolved.

Council decision

Did the Waldport city council reach a decision Monday? Kind of.

City manager Dann Cutter proposed three possible options ­­– accept the one-year contract from commissioners, which costs slightly more than last year’s contract; reduce service to one deputy and decrease the cost by half; or terminate the contract completely.

After some discussion, which included a lambasting of commissioners, the council came up with another option ­­– one-and-a-half deputies.

The suggestion came from councilor Greg Dunn and it quickly turned into a rallying point to others — Waldport would pay for one deputy and then, if Yachats is willing, split the cost and services of a second deputy. Landers, who attended the meeting online, said that is a possibility and something Yachats might consider.

Cutter told councilors that Yachats city manager Bobbi Price told him that Yachats would likely not go for the $222,760 contract offer from commissioners and instead look into an overtime contract. That option relies upon a pool of deputies who volunteer to work overtime.

Before the idea of splitting a deputy was raised, the Waldport council wrestled with whether to continue with two deputies, as the city has done since 1997 when its police force was disbanded, or move to just one.

Mayor Greg Holland said the contract proposed by commissioners was excessively expensive and accounts for about half of the city’s entire budget.

“My idea would be to move it down to one deputy and we’d have so much more money to allocate to other projects that we’ve been lacking in dealing with in the city because of this high cost,” he said.

The attractive part about that, said councilor Susan Woodruff, is the city would then have the money to hire a code enforcement officer, something Landers agreed helps with crimefighting beyond just enforcing code violations.

Dunn added the community is already saying we don’t have enough law enforcement, “And the county commissioners have nothing to say? They’re the ones putting us in this situation to begin with.”

Dunn then asked Cutter what he felt best served the city.

Cutter said it would be a shame to punish the sheriff’s office for the commissioners’ actions but that with their “lack of communication and understanding” he would suggest moving to one deputy.

“And it is hard either way,” Cutter said.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Dunn said. “The commissioners put us in a bad situation because we are going to get the brunt from our citizens.”

“No matter what we do,” Woodruff added.

Councilor Melaia Kilduff suggested no matter what the council decides, the city should double-down on collecting data on how much time the contract deputies actually spend on the job versus time they spend attending to other duties or responding to calls elsewhere.

That subject was one of the sticking points in trying to negotiate a reduced cost with the county. Landers figures Waldport’s contract deputies stay within the city about 75 percent of the time. The city figures it is closer to 68 percent but went along with the sheriff’s calculation.

It was also determined by the sheriff’s office that Waldport pays for two deputies for a total of 80 hours a week but only receives about 60 hours because of time spent on the out-of-town calls, time spent testifying in court, attending meetings and trainings, fueling or maintaining patrol vehicles in Newport, and taking vacations.

“I know you’re into a difficult situation,” Landers said. “It’s been rough.”

He added the proposed contract with Waldport and Yachats was the best of both worlds, something he described as a “win, win, win for Yachats, Waldport and the general county area”

But Landers and the Waldport council also agree the best way to manage policing in unincorporated areas of the county is through a rural taxing district that would eliminate contracts or service districts and increase the number of patrol deputies.

Landers – who is retiring at the end of the year – said he will work to get that proposal on the May ballot for voters to decide.

One deputy not enough?

While councilors agreed not having any deputies in Waldport for the next year was not an option, councilor Rick Booth emphasized people’s safety above the city’s budget and pressed to keep two deputies.

“I don’t want to go down to one because I know that’s not going to work,” he said.

The discussion circled briefly back to the amount of time Waldport’s contract deputies spend responding to calls outside the city – with estimates jumping to more than 30 percent and Dunn scratching his head and saying he is “baffled” by the fact commissioners are aware of that but refuse to account for it.

Councilor Jayme Morris said the commissioners do not care and Holland agreed.

“They won’t ever care,” Holland said. “They will do whatever they want to do and ignore us.”

The council kicked around the idea of billing the county for hours the deputies spend away from their duties in Waldport before finally concurring it would likely be unsuccessful.

“And this is nothing about the sheriff’s department,” Dunn said. “You guys are amazing. I’m sorry, but this is all about our county commissioners failing our citizens – plain and simple.”

In the end, the Waldport council agreed to present the idea of splitting a deputy with Yachats if its council and the county agree. But barring that, they voted to employ a single deputy for the next fiscal year.

Dunn then shared a final word for commissioners.

“I just want to say to the county – I’m disappointed,” he said. “And you guys should be ashamed really. You put our citizens at risk, you put us in a bad situation and it’s just very disheartening … I’m very disappointed.”

On Tuesday, Cutter informed commissioners of the council’s decision to go with one deputy unless the Yachats council agrees to the split at its July 17 meeting. By Wednesday afternoon, he had not heard back from anyone.

Cutter said if Yachats rejects sharing a deputy, the Waldport council would reconvene July 18 to possibly reconsider its decision and choose instead to stick with two deputies.

Price told YachatsNews the contract proposed by the county is “much higher than budgeted” but that she will present it to the Yachats city council at its July meeting.

“During this meeting, I will also present to them the overtime contract option I spoke to Landers about early on and an option mentioned yesterday by the Waldport city council to split one full-time deputy between Waldport and Yachats — giving Waldport 1.5 deputies and Yachats .5, only to service inside the city limits,” she said via email.

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com