Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders announced that as of Monday, April 6, deputies from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) assumed responsibilities for policing Tenino as the future of the city’s police department remains uncertain.
“This includes all levels and priorities of 911 calls. The two remaining Tenino police officers will continue serving in Tenino School District and fulfill the (School Resource Officer) contract with Tenino schools, so the citizens of Tenino can expect to still see them around helping,” Sanders said in an April 5 Facebook post. “The decision to move quickly on this issue arises from the fact that Tenino PD does not have a supervising officer actively working any longer, raising questions about liability and supervisory oversight. This move may feel abrupt, but it is being made to ensure that the City of Tenino, Thurston County, our employees and our residents are being set up for success moving forward.”
Sanders’ announcement comes after he along with Tenino Mayor Dave Watterson and Thurston County Commissioner Wayne Fournier held a town hall on the future of the Tenino Police Department the previous weekend on March 28. During the meeting, Watterson stated Tenino is facing bankruptcy if it keeps funding its police department amid an ongoing budget crunch.
Though Watterson warned of bankruptcy, he added he did not want to do away with the police department forever, and it could be funded again once the city’s finances were back in order. In his Sunday Facebook post, Sanders stated he and his staff were drafting a short term six-month contract for policing services in the South Thurston County community.
While bigger in population, the neighboring City of Rainier has already been without a city police department for years and has been contracting with the TCSO. Tenino’s other neighbor to the south, Bucoda, also contracts with the TCSO.
“Thank you to everyone who attended the town hall last weekend. That feedback is important as we work toward a long term plan for the policing needs of Tenino. As I stated before, Tenino cannot go without police services, which is why we need a short term bridge while we continue to work on the final product,” Sanders said on Facebook.
At the town hall, Watterson told attendees he intends to ask the Tenino City Council to vote on a motion approving a TSCO contract during the council’s next regular meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, at Tenino City Hall — with the council’s regular work session beginning before the meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Tenino’s budget issues
Starting in 2021, budget misreporting issues resulted in the city’s budget expenditures outpacing revenues by an estimated total of $1.4 million.
It occurred toward the end of the tenure of Fournier, Tenino’s mayor from 2015 to 2023. While still currently living in Tenino, he won his current county commissioner seat in 2023 as Watterson took over as mayor. During this time, Tenino had other issues with its clerk-treasurer position.
They began in 2020 when former Tenino Clerk-Treasurer John Millard fell victim to a phishing email scam. This led to another state audit which 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 Millard’s 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 another clerk-treasurer hired in 2023.
The budget issues were discovered by city staff and Watterson in 2024 shortly after he took office. It was discovered an estimated $1.6 million from restricted sewer and water funds had been spent for other city expenses.
The city must now pay back the loan to the restricted funds at a 4% interest rate for a total of approximately $1.8 million.
For more on what was said at the March 28 town hall event, read The Chronicle’s coverage at https://tinyurl.com/wxspz66f.
Watterson’s budget proposal from March 11 can be found on the council’s agenda report starting on page 5 at https://tinyurl.com/2a66wbuz. Tenino’s annual budget documents can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4xvbf9uf on the city’s website.
To learn more about Tenino’s budget issues, read https://tinyurl.com/3bf8b34p.
