Nisqually Valley News, Friday, December 14, 2012 A3
Task force wants investigation of Tenino’s mayor
Photos by Steven Wyble
Yelm Community Choir Director Keith Skogsberg leads a rehearsal earlier this week.
Community Christmas Concert tradition continues on Sunday Annual concert expected to draw several local choirs By Steven Wyble news3@yelmonline.com ••• One of the best aspects of the holiday season — holiday music — is on display this weekend at the 18th annual Community Christmas Concert in Yelm. The concert, which brings together choirs from several churches in the community, is 7 p.m. Sunday at the Yelm Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 10423 Clark Road S.E. Admission is free. Among this year’s expected participants are choirs from Crossroads Community Covenant Church, Emmanuel Lutheran, St. Columban Catholic Church, Seventh-day Adventist, Yelm Community United Methodist, Calvary Chapel of Yelm and Young Life, as well as the Yelm Community Choir. New this year is a local bell choir, said concert organizer Laura Wire. Public officials, including Yelm Mayor Ron Harding, are
Members of Yelm Community Choir rehearse in the Yelm High School choir room earlier this week.
also slated to appear. Wire said the event will include a tribute to a local fallen hero and also honor all fallen soldiers. A color guard featuring local soldiers is part of the concert, she added. In addition to choir performances, the concert features solos, instrumentals and readings. Wire said the concert began in 1994 with the vision of Thom Hahn, who headed the concert until his death, to bring together people different denominations in the community to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. “We come together in word
and song and it’s just great to live in a community that will do that,” Wire said. “People often comment how fun it is to see people from other churches and see their talents and what they can do as a church.” “It’s neat to see the personalities of each church.” The event has grown from about 50 people to hundreds, Wire said. “It’s become a local tradition. … We have a lot of talent in this community.” Free cookies, cider and refreshments are available after the concert.
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bers and have no legal bearing. “It’s a witch hunt that has come down to a firing squad,” Strawn told The Chronicle on Monday, “and they want to assassinate me publicly.” The task force — made up of three residents from within the city limits, three local business owners and three citizens from within school district boundaries — worked with an ad hoc investigative committee that included councilmen Wayne Fournier and Frank Anderson and City Attorney Mark Erickson. John Millard, the citizen task force vice chairman, said he originally joined the group to vindicate Strawn, but after investigating the incident he said it was certainly inappropriate for Strawn to use the police car in the manner he did. “We concluded what Strawn was doing in the car had the appearance of being inappropriate,” Millard said. Millard also said he believes certain city employees were being intimidated by Strawn during the investigative process. According to the report, “it was readily apparent from the inability of the (citizen task force) to interview certain appointed officials and city employees that these public officials were being intimidated by Mayor Strawn.” Erickson, the city attorney, said there was no issue of intimidation and he never worried about being fired. He said he was unable to participate with the task force because it would have been a conflict of interest, since he represents both the city council and the mayor. Fournier said he hopes the city council takes the task force recommendations seriously when they are presented tonight. “There should not be another incident like this,” Fournier said. “We need to stop the shenanigans.”
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By Kyle Spurr kspurr@chronline.com ••• The incident in September in which Tenino Mayor Eric Strawn was accused of having sexual contact with a woman while parked in a city vehicle at a Lacey fitness center did not violate the law, but it may have caused multiple ethics violations. That claim comes from the nine-person Tenino Citizen’s Ethics Review Task Force, which was to present its 125-page report to the Tenino City Council on Tuesday. The task force, formed in October to investigate the Lacey incident, asked the city to launch an official investigation into each of its findings. The task force found potential ethics violations such as that Strawn’s use of a city vehicle was not valid, that he used city funds to pay for gas and Strawn admitted to drinking alcohol while using the city vehicle. Strawn reportedly had a glass of wine while at lunch with his companion and had a blood alcohol content of 0.011 several hours after the incident, said the report. The task force also found the activities of Strawn and the woman while in the black-and-white 2004 GMC Envoy, a former police vehicle in the process of being decommissioned, were inappropriate and therefore unethical. The Chronicle in Centralia first reported in September that several of the witnesses said it appeared the woman was performing oral sex on Strawn while parked in front of the Christianbased gym Health Wiz Fitness. Another witness who parked next to Strawn’s vehicle said he only saw the couple kissing. Strawn admits the incident was embarrassing, but maintains that he did not break the law. He said he thinks the task force findings are the opinions of the mem-
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