TENINO, WASH. — The Tenino City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 943 on Tuesday, May 12, at Tenino City Hall, dissolving the Tenino Police Department and authorizing a six-month contract with the Thurston County Sheriff's Office for policing services in the Stone City. The contract was also approved unanimously.

Under the agreement, the City of Tenino will pay $112,365 for policing services through September 30, with an optional three-month extension costing $56,182.50. The Thurston County Sheriff's Office has been responding to calls in Tenino since April.

Mayor Dave Watterson announced in March that the city was planning to dissolve the department, and a town hall meeting was held on March 28. Watterson said the city faced bankruptcy if the police department remained because of interfund budget loan payments. Budget misreporting between 2021 and 2023 resulted in the city spending an estimated $1.6 million from restricted sewer and water funds on non-sewer and non-water items, leading to the retroactive creation of interfund budget loans. Spending restricted item budget funds on non-item related expenses is a violation of state law. The city must pay back the $1.6 million plus interest to its restricted funds, and the city council extended the interfund loan repayment schedule to 10 years last month.

Sheriff Derek Sanders said dissolving the department was necessary to allow the remaining officers to fast-track their applications. Civil service rules outlined in state law allow certified peace officers to automatically apply for jobs at other policing agencies without interviewing once they receive an official layoff notice from their current employer. "It's a chicken and egg issue in terms of their transition over to the sheriff's office," Sanders said.

Sanders said the Thurston County Sheriff's Office currently has 10 vacancies and that he is willing to accept lateral transfers from other agencies. He said deputies are providing the same level of service in Tenino. He said he and city staff plan to hold a second town hall event to gather input from residents on their expectations, and that he hopes to have a long-term contract ready by January 1, 2027. "More conversation needs to be had in the future about what that long-term contract is going to look like," he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Linda Gotovac initially opposed both the contract and the dissolution. "I just don't think it's very good protection for our officers, the two that are left," Gotovac said. Watterson said he hopes to see the last Tenino Police Department officers at a council meeting in the near future to honor them.