Deputy back on the job after eight-year legal fight

Already beleaguered by budget problems, Sheriff Ken Irwin now has to take out a loan to cover back pay for a fired deputy who was rehired last week after an eight-year legal battle.

The exact amount hasn't been determined. Officials expect the loan from the Yakima County Board of Commissioners will probably be less than $500,000 to cover back pay for Deputy Jan Bartleson, who an arbitrator ruled was improperly fired by Irwin.

The case twice went to the state Court of Appeals before the county chose to settle.

Irwin said resignations by two deputies will allow him to pay for Bartleson's salary this year and set aside $110,000 for his first loan payment to cover back pay.

The loan would be financed by excess cash in other county funds that would otherwise be invested in short-term accounts with the state. County budget director Craig Warner said the interest charged to the sheriff's budget would be higher than the minimal amount usually earned from a state investment fund.

Such loans are not uncommon and are usually repaid within 10 years, Warner said.

Union officials say the Bartleson case is one of the longest-running public employee labor disputes in the state.

Bartleson will undergo a 90-day retraining period to bring her up to speed on current police practices and legal standards.

"Obviously, it wouldn't be prudent on anyone's part to return her straight to the streets after eight years off," said sheriff's Deputy Eric Wolfe, president of the Yakima County Law Enforcement Officers Guild.

Said Irwin: "We're trying very hard to abide by the arbitrator's ruling and be fair to her."

Bartleson said in an interview she had always wanted to return to the job, although the case took much longer to resolve than she ever expected. She held a variety of jobs in the meantime, including as a cashier, cook, waitress, bartender, medical transport driver and most recently as an administrative assistant for the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

"I'm glad this portion of it has been resolved and I can go back to taking care of the county citizens the way I should have been doing all along," Bartleson said.

The state Court of Appeals last August determined that the county should have rehired Bartleson after an arbitrator ruled she was unfairly dismissed.

Court documents detail evidence in the case back to 2001, when Bartleson missed a curve and rolled her patrol car while responding to a domestic violence call. She was suspended for three days, which was eventually reduced to one, and Bartleson claimed that her relationship with Irwin began to deteriorate.

In October 2002, Bartleson requested unpaid medical leave, as allowed by the union contract. Irwin denied her request, prompting a complaint to the state Human Rights Commission, claiming discrimination over gender and disability.

The leave was later approved, but Irwin called for Bartleson's fitness for duty to be evaluated by a psychiatrist because she had expressed concerns about suffering from attention-deficit disorder. She was found fit for duty.

While off duty but in uniform, Bartleson clashed with Naches school officials over treatment of her child. Because of that, Irwin in February 2003 requested a second fitness evaluation, citing concerns about the thoroughness of the first one.

This time, she was found unqualified to return to work, although that finding had nothing to do with the attention-deficit disorder, according to court records.

Bartleson and the union claimed Irwin had passed along unfounded complaints against her to the doctor conducting the psychological review in order to build his case. They said the sheriff then failed to provide a required hearing prior to firing her in 2003.

The county argued that officials had a duty to independently evaluate Bartleson's fitness for duty once she raised concerns about attention-deficit disorder.

The first of the two lawsuits was filed by the Law Enforcement Officers Guild to force the county to arbitrate the termination, as required under the contract.

An arbitration hearing was held in 2007. The arbitrator found that Bartleson should be returned to work and that the contract allowed discharge only for just cause under a progressive process, including a pretermination hearing, which was never held.

The county then sued the guild, arguing in part that the arbitration had been requested too late. The county won in Superior Court, but was overturned on appeal.

The Appeals Court last August stated that arbitrators' rulings are generally supposed to be followed. The county did not meet the burden for proving that the arbitrator had overstepped his bounds.

Wolfe, the union president, suggested that the potential financial implications of the Bartleson case had driven Irwin's handling of layoffs in the department, as well as the demotion of several supervisors to reduce expenses.

Irwin said a budget crisis required three layoffs last year, but that layoffs to fund Bartleson's position and her back pay would have been likely this year if Deputy Sean Moore and another deputy had not resigned. Moore resigned shortly before pleading guilty to attacking a woman and her friend while on duty; the other deputy is taking a federal job. Moore later committed suicide in jail.

The county and Bartleson have yet to agree on a figure for her back pay, but Irwin said he expects it to be under $500,000. If the county had not agreed to return her to duty, she would have received both back pay and an amount in lieu of future pay.

With Bartleson coming on board, the sheriff's office will stay at 52 deputies and sergeants. Irwin has already eliminated two administrative positions, leaving only two commissioned positions on his command staff.

The staffing level is a major sticking point between Irwin and the union, which is in the middle of contract negotiations.

"As far as we are concerned, we shouldn't be down as many members as we are now," said Wolfe.

The union maintains that the sheriff's office has suffered disproportionate cuts in comparison with other county agencies. It has argued with the county over use of the criminal justice sales tax, which adds three-tenths of a cent per dollar to the county sales tax.

Irwin counters that his budget woes are fallout from the weak economy.

"We're just trying to be careful and move forward with a consistent manner," Irwin said.

Irwin said he learned last week that the county's drug task force, Law Enforcement Against Drugs, would lose $100,000 in federal funding for the state budget year, which starts in July. The sheriff's share of that is about $30,000, but Irwin said he expects to maintain his staffing on the task force, including a detective, a clerk and a part-time evidence custodian.

He also learned last week that the sheriff's office did not receive a federal anti-gang grant renewal that would have provided about $107,000. One deputy position is covered by that money through the end of the year.

Those developments -- plus fluctuating fuel prices and other economic question marks -- put in question whether vacancies will be filled anytime soon.

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