SeaTac City Councilman Tony Anderson has been caught up in a controversy over sexually explicit emails exchanged on Port of Seattle Police computers.

Anderson, a Port Police lieutenant, is a budget administrator who no longer works in the division where the alleged incidents occurred.

Anderson was cleared of charges from 1997 that, as a sergeant, he was viewing inappropriate sexual material on a computer.

He said he was trying to eliminate the e-mails and games after seeing another officer viewing them.

But the department upheld infraction violations for not informing his superiors about the inappropriate images and neglect of duty.

Investigators found Anderson was at the office viewing inappropriate Web sites while his officers were answering a call at a drive-by shooting that resulted in two deaths.

Anderson is now trying to get the decade-old findings stripped from his personnel records.

At the time of the incidents, he maintained that department practice was to order the officer to stop and remove the material from the workplace. He was never told to notify a patrol lieutenant, he added.

Anderson was elected to the council in 2005 to replace former Mayor Frank Hansen, who did not seek reelection.

In his first term as a lawmaker, he has kept a low profile and not speaking much during council meetings.

Anderson chairs the council's Public Safety and Justice Committee and is a member of the Land Use and Parks Committee.

He received a doctorate in education leadership from Seattle University, a Master of Science degree in business administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Seattle Pacific University.

Anderson also briefly played professional basketball in Italy.