Waldport Council Criticizes County Over Sheriff Contract, Proposes Sharing Second Deputy Position With Yachats • YachatsNews.com

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNew

WALDPORT — Waldport's decades of employing two sheriff's deputies may be over. Maybe.

The Waldport City Council held a special meeting Monday to decide what to do next after Lincoln County commissioners rejected a proposed $450,000 plan that would have kept two contract deputies in Waldport while adding one for Yachats.

The proposal, supported by both towns and Sheriff Curtis Landers, asked commissioners to consider reducing the contract amount paid by Waldport from about $66,000 to $300,000 while adding Yachats at a cost of $150,000.

Landers proposed absorbing all cost overruns incurred by the county in the first year of the proposal — a test year for Yachats — into the sheriff's 2024-25 budget.

In rejecting the plan at their June 26 meeting, commissioners countered with a contract that would have required Waldport to pay $366,275, then offered a $222,760 contract — including one-time start-up costs — to Yachats for his first assistant.

The county estimates the total cost of a single deputy is about $183,000 per year.

Accepting a higher contract would mean the cities would have to find additional money, since both have allocated 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 that no deputies would be assigned to Waldport starting Monday — with the exception of Wednesday night’s fireworks — 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 make a decision Monday? Sort of.

City Manager Dann Cutter offered three possible options: accept the commissioners' one-year contract, which costs slightly more than last year's contract; reduce the department to one deputy and cut the cost in half; or terminate the contract altogether.

After some discussion, which included castigating the commissioners, the council proposed another option: one and a half deputies.

The proposal came from Councilman Greg Dunn and quickly became a rallying point for others: Waldport would pay for one deputy and then, if Yachats wanted, share the cost and services of a second deputy. Landers, who attended the online meeting, said that was a possibility and something Yachats could consider.

Cutter told councillors that Yachats City Manager Bobbi Price told him Yachats likely would not accept the commissioners' $222,760 contract offer and would instead consider an overtime contract. That option relies on a pool of deputies who volunteer to work overtime.

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

Mayor Greg Holland said the contract proposed by commissioners was prohibitively expensive, accounting for about half of the city's entire budget.

“My idea would be to transfer this responsibility to a single deputy and we would have much more money to allocate to other projects that we have not been able to manage in the city because of this high cost,” he said.

The nice thing about the measure, Councilwoman Susan Woodruff said, is that the city would then have the money to hire a code enforcement officer, which Landers said helps fight crime beyond just enforcing code violations.

Dunn added that the community is already saying we don't have enough law enforcement. “And the county commissioners have nothing to say? They're the ones who put us in this situation.”

Dunn then asked Cutter what he thought would best serve the city.

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

“And it's difficult in any case,” Cutter said.

“That's what I'm saying,” Dunn said. “The commissioners have put us in a bad situation because we're going to have to take the brunt of our citizens.”

“It doesn't matter what we do,” Woodruff added.

Councilwoman Melaia Kilduff suggested that whatever council decides, the city should do more to collect data on how much time contract deputies actually spend on their jobs versus how much time they spend performing other duties or answering calls elsewhere.

That issue has been one of the sticking points in negotiating a reduced cost with the county. Landers estimates Waldport's contract workers stay in town about 75 percent of the time. The town estimates that percentage is closer to 68 percent, but has accepted the sheriff's calculation.

The sheriff's office also determined that Waldport was paying two deputies a total of 80 hours a week, but was only receiving about 60 hours because of time spent on out-of-town calls, time spent testifying in court, attending meetings and trainings, refueling or maintaining patrol vehicles in Newport and taking vacation time.

“I know you're in a tough situation,” Landers said. “It's tough.”

He added that 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 that the best way to manage policing in unincorporated areas of the county is to create 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 would work to get the proposal on the ballot in May so voters can weigh in.

One MP not enough?

While councilors agreed that not having deputies in Waldport for the next year was not an option, Councilor Rick Booth emphasized life safety over the town's budget and insisted on keeping two deputies.

“I don't want to go down to just one because I know it won't work,” he said.

The discussion briefly turned to how much time Waldport's contract deputies spend responding to out-of-town calls — with estimates running as high as 30 percent and Dunn scratching his head and saying he was “baffled” that commissioners are aware of it but refuse to account for it.

Councilman Jayme Morris said commissioners don't care and Holland agreed.

“They'll never care,” Holland said. “They'll do whatever they want and ignore us.”

The council floated the idea of ​​billing the county for time deputies spend away from their duties in Waldport before ultimately agreeing that idea would likely be unsuccessful.

“And this has nothing to do with the sheriff’s department,” Dunn said. “You guys are great. I’m sorry, but this is just our county commissioners failing our citizens.”

Ultimately, Waldport council agreed to present the idea of ​​splitting a deputy with Yachats if its council and the county agreed. But failing that, they voted to employ only one deputy for the next fiscal year.

Dunn then shared a final word for the commissioners.

“I just want to tell the county that I’m disappointed,” he said. “And you should be really ashamed of yourself. You’re putting our citizens in danger, you’re putting us in a bad situation and it’s very disheartening… I’m very disappointed.”

On Tuesday, Cutter informed commissioners of the board's decision to appoint only one deputy unless the Yachats board agrees to the separation at its July 17 meeting. As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not heard back from anyone.

Cutter said if Yachats refuses to share an assistant, Waldport council will meet July 18 to possibly reconsider its decision and opt instead to stick with two assistants.

Price told YachatsNews that the county's proposed contract is “much higher than anticipated,” 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 at the beginning and an option mentioned yesterday by the Waldport City Council to split a full-time deputy between Waldport and Yachats – giving Waldport 1.5 deputies and Yachats 0.5, solely to serve within the city limits,” she said via email.

• Garret Jaros is the full-time reporter for YachatsNews and can be reached at [email protected]