I attended the Tenino City Council meeting held on Oct. 22. It was promoted as a work session to discuss the present condition of the city’s finances and for finding solutions to shortfalls that recent audits had uncovered in the 2024 budget.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders attended also to give a brief presentation on possible protection alternatives that his department could provide. It was not a sales pitch.
My congratulations to Mayor Dave Watterson for maintaining his composure during some of the cross examinations by the council, three members of which were quite argumentative and not willing to listen to anything the mayor had to say.
Those of course are the same members who got the city into this budget mess to start with by blindly following the previous mayor into any hole he wanted to lead them.
The depth of that hole is yet to be determined, but early audit results indicate it to be well over $1 million dollars.
The police chief got his soap box loudspeaker turned on then (he had a willing audience) complained of the sacrifices he and his department had to live with to help with the ongoing budget shortfall.
All while most of his force was up there in city hall instead of at the job they were hired to do.
The chief decided then to stir the pot some more by disclosing previous private discussions with the mayor to the council and public about a grant that he wanted to submit for some funds but that the mayor had held off from approving. That to me is pure insubordination and a firing offense.
The mayor may see it that way as well, but he held his tongue for now.
To top the evening off, Councilor Linda Gotovac then proposed a resolution to be passed that night that would restrict the mayor from altering the police budget in any way that would lower the city’s level of support. It reminded me of the last time the council tried an end-around like that to prevent the incoming mayor (Eric Strawn) to make changes to the budget or municipal code that they didn’t like.
That of course failed after a legal challenge just like this latest one will. The council members who voted in support of this restrictive resolution were Gotovac, O’Callahan and Lawton.
My general impression after the meeting was disgust. The backstabbing by the council and the insubordination by the chief were the highlights certainly, but the general lack of respect for those who try to do the job of city management was just as disturbing.
I hope that the mayor and his staff have the fortitude to hang in there and do the job. We need smart, thoughtful people leading this city, not the petty sniveling individuals who created the mess to start with.
Mike Brown
Former Tenino mayor
