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Questions on communication, transparency come in wake of lawsuit mayor filed against the city

UMATILLA — A group of about 20 residents of the city of Umatilla submitted a series of complaints to the mayor, city councilors and human resources director regarding City Manager David Stockdale.

The group, calling itself Umatilla Cares, sent the complaints May 5 in emails. The messages provide information relevant to the complaint as well as proposed solutions. The East Oregonian also received the emails.

Mostly, the complaints fall under concerns related to feedback, communication and clarity from the city, though they are directed at Stockdale “because he’s the only employee the City Council, and this personnel committee, has management authority over.”

Each complaint requests a “neutral, third party investigator” look into the issues and provide a report.

The EO sent numerous requests for comment to Jonathan Egan, Umatilla’s human resources director. The city has not responded.

Communication problems

Umatilla Cares cites a Dec. 17, 2024, meeting during which the council voted not to accept public comment, despite the item being on the agenda. The meeting was a special session, and councilors at the time said they didn’t feel a public comment period was necessary because the meeting was going to mostly be an executive session.

Then on Jan. 7, Mayor Caden Sipe added to the usual public comment preface, which states the period is for the public to “express opinions, raise issues and provide information” to the city council.

Sipe expanded that to include, “Criticism of individual city employees is not allowed during public comment period.”

Sipe’s statement told people to submit complaints about employees in writing to the human resources director but did not give further detail. Umatilla Cares said in one of the emails the city’s website lists no information about how to submit a complaint about city employees. There is an option on the city’s website to offer a comment to a specific department or a police department-specific complaint.

“Instead of adopting a resolution process, the staff simply added in a way to mute comments or complaints about themselves without a true means of resolution,” the group said. “We find that public comment feels more like an unattended ‘suggestions box’ and we are concerned with the attitude and comments we hear from City councilors when we’re attempting to share ideas, concerns or suggestions.”

The group also claims Stockdale and the city council are not open to input from residents on their actions.

“Our council, upon the advice of City Manager Stockdale, is displaying the very definition of tyranny,” they wrote, “and we request that the council fully consider the impact of their actions on the citizens in this community.”

Umatilla Cares also claims City Councilor Daren Dufloth during an April 15, 2025, budget committee meeting said people who had given public input were acting to “condemn, harass or continually badger” the city and its employees or representatives. A video recording of the meeting reveals he did use that phrase, though he was saying if he were a member of an enterprise zone, he wouldn’t badger the city for money, given that half of the zone money goes to the county.

“Statements like this are especially frustrating to hear when we have attempted to share our thoughts and concerns through the appropriate paths,” Umatilla Cares stated. “In the absence of an actual complaint procedure, we have no other means of gaining resolution to valid concerns of the citizenry.”

Police station bond

In another email, Umatilla Cares offered criticism about the city’s communication surrounding the bond measure to build a new police station. Voters shot down the measure in the  May 2025 election.

Some places, such as the land purchase resolution and exchange agreement from Oct. 15, 2024, cite the total cost at $700,000, while the bond’s website says the land acquisition cost is $500,000. The missing $200,000 came from a land exchange agreement with the proposed station location’s then-property owner, Mark Atkinson.

Umatilla Cares criticized city staff for the discrepancy.

“City Manager Stockdale and his staff are sharing incomplete, misleading, insufficient and confusing information regarding the proposed police station bond,” they said. “We request these concerns be investigated and addressed immediately as our community is in the midst of an election for a very important city initiative.”

Fines, lawsuit add to chaos

The city of Umatilla is not just receiving pushback from this group of residents.

Stockdale and Dufloth each have received hundreds of dollars in fines this year from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. Stockdale was fined for hiring a family member to do city business and Dufloth failed to announce conflicts of interest during votes regarding the Rock the Locks music festival.

Additionally, Umatilla Mayor Caden Sipe is suing the city, the city councilors and Stockdale in the U.S. District Court of Oregon over his treatment since taking office. Sipe filed his suit in March, and the councilors filed a response June 11, saying Sipe’s claim should be dismissed. Stockdale, who has different representation from the rest of the defendants, has not responded to the complaint as of July 2.

The councilors’ response attributes Sipe’s complaint with having “the primary purpose of silencing the Defendants who are political opponents, to retaliate against their differing views, and/or to undermine their reputation.”

It also says the claim should be stopped because if Sipe suffered damages, which he claims, “those damages were due to his own conduct.” Finally, the response says Sipe’s First Amendment piece of his complaint fails because “the speech involved was governmental speech not subject to First Amendment scrutiny.”

Sipe told the East Oregonian via email he feels the council has tried to silence him, not the other way around, citing a resolution from the council “prohibiting me from performing my duties as mayor” because he’d offered opinions he thinks they didn’t like. He said he hopes the legal outcome will lead to accountability for the council.

“The key difference between the council’s filing and mine is that mine is supported by facts and theirs is not,” he said. “If the council would spend the same amount of time listening to voters as they have spent trying to silence me our city would be in a great shape.”

Sipe and the responding defendants have requested trial by jury.