Tenino City Council Accepts Ethics Task Force Findings, Looks to Charge Mayor Strawn

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The Tenino City Council accepted the findings from the Tenino Citizen’s Ethics Review Task Force ethics report this week and required Mayor Eric Strawn to pay for any expenses incurred during the incident in Lacey last September when Strawn was accused of having sexual contact with a woman while parked in a city vehicle at a fitness center.

The amount of expenses are still being determined.

The ethics task force released the 125-page report in December. The report claimed Mayor Strawn made multiple ethics violations from the incident in Lacey. The incident did not violate the law, according to the Lacey police department.

The Tenino City Council directed City Attorney Mark Erickson to check with the Attorney General’s Office for possible ethical violations and to refer the findings to the city prosecutor’s Office for any criminal violations.

“I’m in the process of checking with the Attorney General’s Office to see if they do that kind of thing,” Erickson said. “That’s my homework.”

Erickson will report his findings to the city council at the next regular meeting Jan. 22.

Strawn said he is surprised the task force and the city council are still spending time on the incident he admittedly calls embarrassing, but was never charged for.



Strawn submitted a complaint against Councilor Wayne Fournier, who was involved with the task force, for, he said, unethically using a statement Strawn made in an executive session, which is not open to the public.

Strawn’s statement in the ethics report, compiled by notes from Fournier in an executive session, says Strawn met his female companion at 2:30 p.m. on the day of the incident and the two went to lunch at Pints and Quarts in Lacey. Strawn then had a glass of wine and left the bar at 5:30 p.m. and went to the female’s house.

The city council heard the complaint this week and decided to have the statement redacted from the ethics report. The council also formally stated disapproval of Fournier’s actions.

Erickson said under state laws there is no legal consequence for using the statement from executive session.

“What (Fournier) did was inappropriate, but there is not a sanction for it,” Erickson said.

Fournier said he felt he had a moral obligation to share Strawn’s statement in the report.

“If anybody ever thinks they can use executive session as a place of confession for wrongdoing, they are mistaken on what executive session is for,” Fournier said.