During the Tenino City Council meeting work session on March 11, Tenino Mayor Dave Watterson proposed budget amendments as the South Thurston County municipality still struggles to recover from budget misreporting issues — with the main amendment being the dissolution of the Tenino Police Department.
Watterson spoke for close to an hour breaking down budget details and explaining his reasoning for making this proposal, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
However, once the work session ended and the regular council meeting began, several Tenino residents spoke during public comment to oppose dissolving the police department, starting with a letter from former Tenino Clerk-Treasurer Jen Scharber, which was read into the record by another resident.
Scharber felt that Watterson had omitted some details in his budget breakdown.
“In the attached document, there is a reference to hidden money. I want to clarify that the City of Tenino experienced an extremely challenging period following the fraud investigation that left the city without a clerk-treasurer and significant financial issues to resolve,” Scharber said. “For a long period, there were no applicants willing to fill the position, and the city subsequently went through three clerk-treasurers in three years. This level of turnover, combined with the complexity of cleaning up the financial records and the broader climate of rising costs contributed to the current financial challenges. It is important to recognize that this situation was not caused by any single individual, whether a former mayor or staff member. And placing blame on one person does not accurately reflect the circumstances the city faced.”
The council did vote on a motion to make the police department permanent — barring a supermajority council vote — but the motion failed 3-2.
What the city faced
Starting in 2021, misreporting issues resulted in the city’s budget expenditures outpacing revenues by an estimated total of $1.4 million. These issues occurred during the tenure of former Mayor Wayne Fournier, who was mayor from 2015 until 2023, when he was elected to his current office as a Thurston County commissioner.
During this time, Tenino also had other issues with its clerk-treasurer position. They began in 2020 when former Clerk-Treasurer John Millard fell victim to a phishing email scam. This led to another state audit that uncovered more than $330,000 of fraudulent automated clearing house payments made by Millard, leading to his resignation.
It also left Tenino without a clerk-treasurer until May 2021, but a replacement quit less than three months later, citing commuting distance. In September 2021, another new clerk-treasurer was hired, but was ultimately fired by March 2022 after failing to file annual budget reports with the state auditor’s office.
An outside accounting agency was hired in September of 2022 to handle the city’s finances, followed by Scharber who was hired as clerk-treasurer in 2023.
The budget issues were discovered by city staff and Watterson shortly after he took office in 2024. It was discovered an estimated $1.6 million from restricted sewer and water funds had been spent for other city expenses.
Because it’s a violation of state law to use the restricted funds on non-fund related items, the city council had to retroactively approve use of the funds as an interfund loan. The city must now pay back the loan to the sewer and water funds within the next three years at a 4% interest rate for a total of approximately $1.8 million.
While she served as clerk-treasurer in the transition period between Fournier and Watterson, Scharber would end up resigning by the end of Watterson’s first year in office. In her exit interview, she stated she had “zero support, trust or confidence” in the city’s current leadership and claimed Watterson did not value her opinion, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
In her letter read during Tuesday’s meeting, she once again took aim at Watterson, claiming his analysis of the budget was incomplete.
“Prior to Mayor Watterson’s administration, city budget documents consistently included a five-year historical comparison. This information is extremely valuable because it allows councilmembers and the public to clearly see trends in both revenues and expenditures over time,” Scharber said. “I strongly recommend requesting and reviewing the last five years of revenue and expenditure reports before making any major decisions.”
She also felt there were unexplored grant opportunities out there to help fund police services, along with ways to expand city revenue.
Others also spoke advocating for keeping the Tenino Police Department, citing fears of increased response times during emergency situations.
No motions were made one way or another on making any budget amendments at last Tuesday’s meeting.
During last Tuesday’s meeting, Watterson stated he was planning on meeting with Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders along with Tumwater Police Department officials to discuss policing contract options.
Watterson’s budget breakdown and proposal can be found on the council’s agenda report starting on page 5 at https://tinyurl.com/2a66wbuz on the city’s website.
To learn more about Tenino’s previous budget issues, read The Chronicle’s coverage at https://tinyurl.com/3bf8b34p.
