Among the discussion items during the Tenino City Council’s Tuesday, Feb. 11, work session and regular meeting was the resignation of Tenino Clerk-Treasurer Jen Scharber.
Her resignation letter was read into the record by Tenino City Councilor Linda Gotovac. Tenino Mayor Dave Watterson is on vacation and was not present at the meeting.
“Dear Mayor Watterson, I am writing to formally resign from my position as City of Tenino clerk treasurer. My last day of employment will be Feb. 14, 2025. It’s been an honor to serve the City of Tenino and I’m proud to have been part of some major accomplishments and wish the city all the best,” Scharber said in the letter.
“I just want to say thank you to Jen for all of her services here that she has done. She stepped into a huge role when she became clerk-treasurer, because you know we’ve gone through so many and she came in, cleaned everything up,” Tenino City Councilor Jason Lawton said during Tuesday’s meeting. “She’s been very appreciated up here by these elected officials, and I hope there’s some other elected officials that aren’t here right now that appreciate your hard work that you have done for the city.”
While her resignation letter left out any mention of why she resigned, Scharber laid the blame squarely at Watterson’s feet in her City of Tenino exit interview, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle.
In the exit interview, she stated she had “zero support, trust or confidence” in the city’s current leadership. She claimed Watterson did not value or respect her opinion.
“I don't think it was ever Mayor Watterson's intention that I would stay in my position, so this amounts to constructive dismissal,” Scharber said in the interview. “… Constructive dismissals may be convenient for a new mayor, but it is not the way to ensure that our local government remains strong, successful and respected by the people we serve.”
Though Watterson is still currently on vacation, The Chronicle reached out to him to see if he had seen Tuesday’s meeting and to ask for comment on Scharber’s resignation. Watterson stated he would comment on the situation upon his return after Feb. 24.
Scharber’s resignation comes amid the fallout of budget issues the city has been dealing with, caused by years of improper budget reporting and leading to an estimated $1.4 million deficit from 2021 to 2024 in Tenino’s finances.
This budget misreporting led to the city spending an estimated $1.3 million from its restricted funds in 2024, as previously reported by The Chronicle, and many cuts to city staffing have already been made to address the budget deficit in 2025.
The Washington state Auditor’s Office is currently finishing an audit of the city’s finances.
Both Gotovac and Watterson explained the city’s budget woes during a Nov. 9, 2024, town hall event with Tenino residents.
Tenino has had issues with its clerk-treasurer position starting 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 that new clerk-treasurer quit less than three months later, citing commuting distance as their main reason for finding another job.
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.
“They were here for some time, and from what I understand, what they did made it even worse for our people to try to figure out what happened,” Watterson said at the November town hall.
Then, Scharber started as the Tenino clerk-treasurer in January 2023.
Watterson was elected mayor later that year in November and was sworn in at the beginning of 2024. He followed the tenure of former mayor and current Thurston County Commissioner Wayne Fournier.
Since then, another outside consultant had been hired and was assisting Scharber in essentially recreating the city’s accounting books going back all the way to 2020.
Back at her final Tenino City Council meeting on Tuesday, Scharber gave the councilors an update as to the status of the ongoing state audit.
“We did have the state auditor’s office in city hall today as well as last week. They are aware of my exit,” Scharber said during Tuesday’s meeting. “So we’re trying to get everything wrapped up. As of now, I think they have everything they need. There’s a few more questions they’ll go over with the mayor, but it should be okay.”
Additionally, the Tenino City Council unanimously approved removing Scharber as a signer on Tenino’s Timberland Bank accounts and adding Tenino Court Clerk Veronica Barnes as a signer on the accounts effective Feb. 15 during its Tuesday meeting. City officials are also looking for a new clerk-treasurer.
For more information on Tenino’s budget issues, read The Chronicle’s coverage of the Nov. 9, 2024, town hall at https://tinyurl.com/r7p8zsak.
To view a recording of the Tenino City Council’s Tuesday, Feb. 11, work session and regular meeting, go to https://tinyurl.com/yc8s4zfn.
