Union ready to fight to keep deputy jobs

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima County’s deputy sheriffs union heated up its effort to fend off layoffs at the end of the year, saying that legal action is possible if Sheriff Ken Irwin does not reverse his decision.

The union’s president and attorney issued a news release Thursday questioning Irwin’s handling of finances in the sheriff’s office and suggesting that the layoffs were in retaliation for the union’s disagreement over how the county has used a special criminal-justice sales tax.

"They already had hacked the sheriff’s staff enough," union attorney Jim Cline said in the news release. "This looks like retaliation for the guild blowing the whistle on their previous spending decisions. The Yakima County voters have voted for public safety, and they deserve to get it."

Contacted Thursday evening, Irwin said the layoffs were a last resort after anticipated federal funding fell through late in the year. He described as "absurd" the union’s contention that the layoffs were retaliatory.

"I love my deputies. I want them all to have a good, long career," Irwin said, noting that it was the first time he had had to lay off employees since becoming sheriff in 2001. He was re-elected to a four-year term in November.

Irwin announced last week that he would lay off three deputies and demote several supervisors to cover a $425,000 shortfall.

Other budget shortfalls have been covered largely through leaving vacancies or retirements unfilled. Irwin has eliminated two lieutenant positions and left vacant slots for a chief deputy and undersheriff, among other reductions.

The layoff announcement stunned the guild and county commissioners, representatives said, although the guild questioned whether the commissioners were truly uninformed and chastised Irwin for "gross incompetence" if he failed to inform the commissioners beforehand.

Irwin has said he has been working on the budget since early last year, including seeking state and federal grants and bringing in a county financial specialist to provide better understanding of the agency’s financial standing.

"I was not just sitting back and hoping for a better tomorrow," he said.

Commissioners have said they warned Irwin of the looming shortfall. Commissioner Mike Leita said last week that Irwin could have dampened the blow by gradually implementing the layoffs.

Irwin countered Thursday that it didn’t make sense to cut deputies before knowing if the federal funding could be secured. Another federal grant will protect three deputies’ jobs, Irwin said.

The union has indicated that it will challenge the layoffs before the state Public Employment Relations Commission if Irwin won’t back down.

It’s unclear how successful that would be. The county has the right to set the number of employees, although Irwin must negotiate over working conditions.

Cline argued in a Bellevue, Wash., case that the city should have bargained a blanket layoff that closed a dispatch center, although PERC ruled against the union because of a waiver in the contract regarding layoffs. Irwin said he had turned the union’s inquiry over to a labor attorney working for the county.

Even at peak staffing of 68 in 2007 and 2008, the sheriff’s office has never come close to the conventional standard for rural agencies of one officer per 1,000 residents. The layoffs will leave the agency with 0.63 officers per 1,000.

Deputy Eric Wolfe, the guild president, said the layoffs were troubling because the number of deputies on the road had already been eroded too far.

Irwin said the patrol division is his first priority and that all budget reductions have gone toward maintaining that staffing.

The county and the union continue to disagree over the intent of the three-tenths of a cent sales tax approved to support criminal justice, including the sheriff’s office.

The union contends the county has used the tax money to fill gaps in the general fund instead of adding positions, as the measure was first described. The county relies on a finding from the state auditor that the county’s approach is legal.

The tax was first approved in 2004 and renewed in 2009. The sheriff’s office will receive $1.2 million of the estimated $4.6 million of the county’s total share of the three-tenths tax this year.

• Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.