By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports the city council in Tenino passed a no confidence vote of the mayor during a packed meeting last night in which citizens called for Mayor Bret Brodersen’s resignation for firing the police chief.
Chief John Hutchings was terminated on March 25 after almost two years with the city.
News reporter Andy Hobbs writes Brodersen said he is moving forward with hiring a new chief and has no intention to resign.
Read about it here
After reading the Daily Zero story, it appears there’s blame to share in this.
Hutchings must have been aware that terms of his retirement limited him to 159.5 hours per month, yet he routinely exceeded it. Strawn hired Hutchings and was mayor while most of the OT was being submitted but neither he nor the city treasurer-clerk (who I’m assuming handled payroll) did anything to address that discrepancy. Broderson technically made the right decision because Tenino is now on the hook to reimburse the state the OT they paid Hutchings, but he has handled it badly.
Whoever gets the blame, all taxpaying residents of Tenino are now on the hook to give money back to the state for something they never had a say in. Maybe they can hold a bake sale.