WALDPORT – The Waldport City Council stayed in house to find its new city manager – it hired the mayor.
The council announced Thursday evening that it had selected Dann Cutter as its new city manager, replacing Kerry Kemp of Yachats, who is retiring after six years in the job.
Cutter, who was elected mayor in 2018, is director of information technology services at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, a job he will resign before becoming city manager. He had also been serving as interim, co-director of the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments in Albany.
Cutter will resign as mayor before officially taking the city manager job April 27.
The council had hired a Washington-based consulting group to recruit and screen candidates for the job. In announcing the hire, the city said the council was “very conscientious to keep the hiring process objective” and once Cutter applied excluded him from the selection process. Council president Greg Holland presided over meetings during the selection process.
The council interviewed Cutter and one other finalist, voting to offer Cutter a contract March 20. The three-year “at will” contract has standard provisions for termination and severance if the council wants to eventually part ways with the city manager. It was signed Wednesday. Cutter will be paid $105,000 a year with standard city insurance and retirement benefits.
“The council was impressed by Mr. Cutter’s proven leadership qualities, his dedication and love for Waldport, his ability to locate and connect resources to tackle projects, and his ideas for the future,” the city said in a statement.
Cutter has a masters degree in business administration from Oregon State University and 23 years of experience in technology services.
He began volunteering for the city in 2000 when he was appointed to the Planning Commission. He was elected to the City Council in 2006, and then mayor in 2018.
Once Cutter resigns, the City Council appoints someone — another council member or member of the public — to replace him through the end of his two-year term in December. The mayor’s two-year term is up for election in November. If a council member is appointed mayor, then the council would then appoint someone to fill the vacant council position, according to the city’s charter.