Waldport Recall Effort Targets Six Council Members

A citizen group in Waldport is moving forward with a recall effort targeting all six city councilors, citing long-running concerns about transparency, financial oversight, and the council’s deference to City Manager Dann Cutter. Recall organizer Tony Thimakis says the core issue is that councilors act in concert without open discussion, appearing to follow direction rather than critically reviewing city business.

This recall effort follows the prior recall attempt in November 2025, which did not qualify for the ballot due to a procedural issue involving petition formatting requirements. Organizers state that the current campaign reflects continued community concern and a commitment to meeting all statutory requirements. The recall petitions apply to City Councilors Rick Booth, Greg Dunn, Jayme Morris, Michelle Severson, Jerry Townsend, and Susan Woodruff. Thimakis pointed out that both the county clerk and the city acknowledged there was no intent to violate the rules from the last recall effort, but the petitions were still rejected for not strictly following procedure.

In the new effort, petitioners were required to gather 192 signatures per councilor. Thimakis says they collected between 235 and 239 signatures for each, comfortably above the threshold. The petitions have been turned in to the city recorder and forwarded to the Lincoln County Clerk’s Office for verification. Under the process, the clerk has 30 days to verify signatures. Once verified, councilors have five days to file a response, and at that time the measure could then be placed on a ballot within about 30 days. If voters choose to remove all six councilors, Thimakis said, according to the Waldport charter, an interim council would be appointed until the November election, when permanent replacements could be chosen.

Thimakis said they did the recall again as there were still concerns raised, that have not been addressed about city finances and oversight, noting the city has gone six years without an audit presentation to the council, despite an opportunity for auditors to present their findings. According to Thimakis, the city manager shut down that presentation and no councilor publicly questioned the decision.

During recent budget committee work, where most councilors also sit as members, Thimakis was critical of how numbers were presented. He says the city manager has claimed to have brought in about $8 million in grants, but the documents did not clearly separate what funds came in, how they were spent, or whether projects exceeded their budgets.

If the signatures are validated and the recall goes to the ballot, Waldport voters will decide whether to retain or remove each of the six councilors. That election would be the key opportunity for the public to weigh in directly on how the city is being governed and on demands for greater transparency, routine financial auditing, and fuller access to meeting records. More details about the recall can be found at www.justiceforwaldport.com.