With dozens of Morton residents packed into the Bob Lyle Community Center on Monday, Dec. 29, members of the Morton City Council convened for their final regular meeting of the year.
The majority of meeting attendees were there to hear what former Morton Mayor Dan Mortensen would say, as he had filed an official citizen complaint to be included on the council’s meeting agenda. His complaint was regarding what he perceived to be a current councilor abusing their position by criticizing the former mayor’s tenure.
In November, Councilor Jason Sawyer publicly questioned whether the Morton Historical Society should have chosen Mortensen to lead and represent them in making a tourism grant funding request from the city after former Morton Clerk-Treasurer Tamara “Tammy” Clevenger embezzled almost $1 million in taxpayer dollars from the city, mostly during Mortensen’s tenure as mayor.
At Monday’s meeting, Mortensen ended up calling for Sawyer’s resignation.
On a lighter note at the meeting, East Lewis County Chamber of Commerce (ELCCC) President Rhonda Cornwell submitted the ELCCC’s own tourism grant funding request to the city.
In her presentation, Cornwell announced both the return of the SasqWatch: Beyond the Footprint festival in 2026, as well as plans to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest picnic in Morton. The world’s largest picnic attempt will be a part of the nationwide celebration of America’s 250th birthday in the summer.
During the meeting, current Morton Mayor Rick Mead swore in three of the four newly elected incoming councilors ahead of the new year — Jeff Johnson, Jason Knuston and Peter Hansen.
The final newly elected councilor, Maria Gonzalez, was not in attendance, meaning Gonzalez will be sworn in at the beginning of the council’s first 2026 meeting, scheduled for Monday, Jan. 26.
Gonzalez will be replacing Councilor Bob Boyer in position 2 after Boyer chose not to run for re-election, as is Hansen with Councilor Richard Vanderlip in position 3. Both ran unopposed for the positions in November’s general election.
Johnson beat candidate Kristen Lilley for position 4 after Councilor Travis Cooper also declined to run for re-election. Knuston beat candidate John VanBlaricom for position 5, taking former Councilor Caro Johnson’s seat.
Mortensen’s citizen complaint
Sawyer’s call for the Morton Historical Society to replace Mortensen in November came after a $20,000 tourism grant funding request submitted by the Historical Society lacked details in explaining what they planned spending tourism funds on.
According to Morton City Clerk LuAnn Ward, a more detailed request has since been submitted by the Historical Society — though Mortensen still took issue with what Sawyer said in November and spoke during Monday’s meeting.
While Sawyer felt some of the blame for letting the embezzlement happen should have been shouldered by the town’s leadership, Mortensen stated Clevenger had taken advantage of him and later pleaded guilty to the federal charges.
Previously, Mortensen was elected and served as Morton’s mayor from 2015 to 2023, when he was defeated by Mead. Prior to Mortensen, Morton’s mayor was James Gerwig, elected in 2011 after being appointed mayor in 2008.
In 2024, an Office of the Washington State Auditor accountability audit found Clevenger had embezzled $937,584 between 2013 and 2021, which “was not detected by the city council and the mayor until our audit,” the audit report stated.
This included at least $311,727 of cash that citizens had brought in to pay for city services between November 2015 and December 2021, and at least $625,857 by writing city checks to herself and depositing them in her bank account starting in February 2013 and ending in December 2021. She also made unauthorized cash withdrawals with the City of Morton’s ATM card.
For her guilty plea, Clevenger was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay back the funds she embezzled to the city, on top of an additional $799,000 to the city’s insurance company, repaying the company for the city’s insurance claim funds as previously reported by The Chronicle.
Mortensen reminded Sawyer of his own testimony during Clevenger’s trial, along with Mead’s.
“Our mayor was there. He spoke to the court, how she had cheated us — all of us. The city clerk was there, and she spoke on how Tammy had cheated her and Tammy had embezzled from our community,” Mortensen said. “I was there and I spoke on behalf of the city. Because she not only cheated me as well. She used my signature. She signed checks in my name.”
He added during his tenure as mayor, he was the one who initially proposed the Morton City Council split up Clevenger’s duties and have a designated treasurer separate from the city clerk position.
“And guess what, shortly after we appointed the city treasurer, Tammy resigned. Because she knew the sh-t was going to hit the wall,” Mortensen added.
Mortensen also questioned whether Sawyer was really concerned with how city funds were being spent in asking how the Historical Society planned to spend the $20,000 requested.
He filed a public records request with the City of Morton for the cost of legal services incurred by the city starting in March of 2024, stemming from Sawyer’s own lawsuit against the city over water service billing issues.
According to Mortensen, the city had paid a total of $3,588.63 in legal fees fighting Sawyer’s lawsuit.
While some meeting attendees at November’s meeting also questioned the Historical Society’s tourism funding request’s lack of details, Mortensen believed Sawyer had a hand in that, too.
“These folks that were here last meeting that read those statements, were orchestrated by you,” Mortensen said. “For some reason or another, you have a sort of prejudice against me, and/or the Historical Society, and/or the visitor’s center.”
The City of Morton contracts with the Historical Society to use the Historical Society’s museum building as the city’s official visitor’s center.
Because of the bias Mortensen alleged Sawyer had, he asked the council to pass a resolution barring Sawyer from voting on any motion involving tourism funds for the Historical Society, as he felt Sawyer lacked the integrity to abstain from voting. That wasn’t his only statement regarding Sawyer’s alleged bias.
“You probably just need to resign,” Mortensen said.
Some attendees at Monday’s meeting voiced disapproval with what Mortensen said, while others applauded. Following the end of his official citizen complaint, Mortensen left the meeting.
Later, during public comment at the meeting, some attendees responded to Mortensen’s citizen complaint including one who wished he had remained at the meeting.
“I was hoping (Mortensen) would stick around a little while tonight, and at least take a couple questions,” Morton resident John McKenzie said.
He took issue with Mortensen’s claim that Sawyer was biased against the Historical Society, claiming, “that is not the case,” believing Sawyer’s concerns were legitimate.
McKenzie also took aim at Morton City Attorney Jim Buzzard, alleging Buzzard was providing Mortensen with legal advice pertaining to the current situation.
“Whether I am or am not giving the former mayor advice is not something that I would say to anybody, but I will, because this is how Mr. McKenzie operates,” Buzzard said. “He’s not a client of mine. I’m not advising him in any form or capacity whatsoever.”
Other public commenters also spoke up and countered Mortensen’s assertions that they were against the Historical Society and their opposition was being organized by Sawyer.
One commenter also felt Mortensen was in no position to be handling tourism funds of any kind — as during his tenure, Mortensen supported a controversial 8-foot-tall “Trump Tower” built by former Morton Police Chief Roger Morningstar on his front lawn during the 2020 election, which some believed resembled a Ku Klux Klan hood.
“He was the one who supported the Ku Klux Klan Trump Tower that sat across from the grade school that a lot of people don’t come back to Morton because of,” the commenter stated. “Gust Backstrom Park doesn’t get full like it used to. People don’t want to be here. They see us as hillbillies.”
Former Morton City Councilor Amanda West, who served alongside Mortensen from 2016 to 2019, also spoke during public comment, saying she felt attacked by what Mortensen said.
“I really wish he had stayed so he could hear me say that I think it’s interesting to start a statement with ‘I’m not here to be argumentative,’ and then tell someone they don’t have any integrity. That’s fairly argumentative,” West said. “Additionally, part of the reason, I think as a former council member, why Tammy Clevenger was able to do what she did, is because there was not a system set up. Part of it was the city clerk and treasurer being one position.”
She stated the way the city used to be run also made it easy for Clevenger to carry out her embezzlement.
“Whatever his motives are — and I wasn’t at the last meeting so I’m not going to assign motive to Councilman Sawyer — but asking questions about the way that public money is going to be spent is what the council is supposed to do,” West added. “And it is what I believe is Mr. Mortensen is accusing the former council of having not done, when we approved the consent agendas that had the embezzlement in them.”
Ultimately, the Morton City Council made no motion preventing Sawyer from voting on approval of tourism funds for the Morton Historical Society, and Sawyer did not resign.
