Members of the Tenino City Council met on Dec. 9 for their first regular meeting of the month to discuss city business and consider approval of various ordinances, including one for the South Thurston County community’s 2026 budget.
According to the budget ordinance in the council’s agenda report, budget revenues across all funds for 2026 are expected to total $9,107,017.58. Budget expenditures across all funds next year are expected to total $7,482,024.12.
The budget was approved unanimously. However, the biggest topic of discussion during the meeting itself wasn’t the budget, but a letter to the editor penned by Tenino City Councilor Jason Lawton and published by The Chronicle on Nov. 5.
Lawton’s opinion piece was brought up by fellow Tenino City Councilor Jeff Eisel, who wanted more details concerning some of the claims Lawton made.
In his letter, titled “Tenino deserves better leadership,” Lawton said he reached his “breaking point” and took issue with Tenino Mayor Dave Watterson’s handling of many issues — specifically his refusal to lower the city’s flag to half mast after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and an apparently lack of leadership from Watterson specific to the budget process.
“After eight years serving on the Tenino City Council, I’ve seen our community through challenges and triumphs but never have I witnessed such dysfunction, lack of transparency, poor process, disrespect and lack of leadership as we’re seeing today,” Lawton wrote in the Nov. 5 opinion.
Eisel stated he wasn’t aware of Lawton’s opinion until well after it was published. His comments came during a presentation concerning the optics of actions by city staff and elected officials. Upon finally reading Lawton’s opinion, he said he was concerned and surprised by what Lawton claimed.
“To summarize it, it’s an impassioned denouncement of the mayor by Councilman Lawton, which is well and good. That’s his right,” Eisel said. “It pretty much involved the culture wars between liberals and conservatives, and I choose not to get into that.”
What Eisel did take issue with was Lawton’s claims to Watterson’s alleged “dysfunction, lack of transparency, poor process, disrespect and lack of leadership.”
“I was surprised to read it because this is the first time these issues have been brought forward by Councilman Lawton. My opinion is these issues should have been presented first in the council, and any public comment in the newspapers or otherwise could certainly follow afterwards,” said Eisel.
According to Eisel, Lawton’s description of Watterson’s first two years in office was a more accurate description of how Watterson’s predecessor — Wayne Fournier — ran the city.
“At this point, after two years of observing Mayor Watterson as he goes through his duties, I’m surprised to hear that these charges are being made by a council member,” Eisel said.
Going back to 2021 before Watterson was mayor, budget misreporting issues resulted in the city’s budget expenditures outpacing budget revenues by an estimated total of $1.4 million. This led to the city spending an estimated $1.3 million from restricted sewer and water funds for other city expenses, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
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.
“That was a big part of my concern, that there’s something about Mayor Watterson’s performance that I have missed. So my purpose in this is to have Councilman Lawton explain to the city folk of Tenino what he means by these (claims). Because if these are true, the council needs to address that,” Eisel said.
From what Eisel said, he felt the city’s budget process and documents were transparent. He asked Lawton for more details about his accusations specific to Watterson’s performance in office.
“Jeff, I’m not going to get up here five weeks later and answer to your BS. You’ve had five weeks to talk about this,” Lawton said. “And it’s very noble of you to come up here and come to Mayor Watterson’s defense, but I stand by that letter and I’m always going to stand by that letter. And Dave knows how I feel about it.”
Eisel countered and stated he felt he was actually coming to Lawton’s defense by ensuring the public knew the details behind his claims, as he felt Lawton could be in legal jeopardy and subject to a libel lawsuit.
“I don’t need a defense. There’s people that have reached out to me and asked me questions, so I’m not going to get up here and answer to you, Jeff,” Lawton said.
When pressed for details as to what was said to Lawton by the unnamed people to prompt the opinion, Lawton once again refused to respond.
Eisel also asked the other councilors if they believed Lawton’s claims as well, but they made no statements. Instead, Tenino City Councilor Linda Gotovac proposed tabling the issue until next year, as plans are in the works to discuss possibly amending mayoral duties and policies.
This isn’t the first time Lawton penned an opinion critical of Watterson either.
He also took issue with Watterson’s handling of budget issues in an Oct. 25, 2024 opinion published in The Chronicle. Following its publication, Lawton reached out to explain he and Watterson made amends last year.
“I’d rather not have me saying he’s ineffective. The mayor and I have talked recently and a lot of this was my frustration,” Lawton told The Chronicle in November of 2024.
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