DEJA
VU all over again.... And again.... of the "not so great debate":
Sultan's
Own Police Department v. Purchasing Services from the County Sheriff?
This
page provides the links which support the 4/24/07 Monroe
Monitor & Valley News article
authored by Traci Hoenstine (with contributors Kerry Ourada, Gerry Gibson
and L. Storm)
Audio of April 26, 2007 Co. Sheriff's Presentation to Sultan Council & Citizens
In the past seven years the City of Sultan has explored contracting with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department three times. During that period, Sultan's Police Chief Fred Walser has been asked to resign, placed on leave without a stated reason, charged with, then cleared of harassment charges, requested to force his second in command to resign, endured budget cuts and been slandered. Below is a timeline of those events.
Fall of 2000 - Sultan City Council contacts the County Sheriff's Dept. regarding contracting for their police service. According to a 2002 written opinion (see link below) by then-Sultan SPD employee, Carolyn Case, Sheriff Rick Bart stated in a Sultan council meeting, “Sultan will get nowhere near the level of service they enjoy now."
The link to the Herald's 2000 story re nix re using sheriff' dept. law enforcement services instead of Sultan's PD, as proposed by then-C/M Jimmy Porter. Here's the cut-and-paste link if the one below does not work for you -- http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/00/9/26/NEWSWATC.CFM (OF INTEREST: This story clearly proves that the city has been aware of the problems and challenges related to levels of police service tied to population (specifically 1,000) as evidenced by statements reprinted below from this article. Yet in 2006, City Planner Rick Cisar, aided and abetted by mayor's and council's failure to act to correct that problem, repeatedly took the "I'll just MAKE it fit!" approach to approving plat applications, most of which were returned to the applicant to address the problem of non-current levels of police service.) Click here to link to the Herald's 2002 letter to the Editor by Carolyn Case, or copy this into your browser window: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/02/8/9/15739030.CFM
Sept. 2001- Sultan police officers give up cost of living allowances and holiday pay for 16 months to save jobs. (Link to Herald 9/18/01 article, "Sultan officers take hit for jobs." LINK to paste into browser:: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/01/9/18/14392327.CFM
July 2002 - Former Mayor Rowe places Chief Walser on leave with no stated justification or reason. (FOR LINKS to this illegal action by Rowe and all that followed, like a snowball rolling downhill, see the "Sept. 2002" heading below.)
August 2002 - Chief Walser quoted in an interview says “For Six and a half years I’ve done the best job I can. I plan to return to work. The police department is dangerously understaffed. The mayor can fire me but he has to give cause." (FOR LINKS, please see the below "Sept. 2002" heading below.)
Sept. 2002:
- Chief Walser reinstated. Rowe still provides no reason or justification for imposing leave. ( (9/18/02 Herald Story, "Sultan Police Chief back on job." - If link does not work, copy this link into browser: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/02/9/18/15843242.CFM
- A Sultan City Councilman accuses Chief Walser of a crime. Chief Walser files a slander claim. No charges ever filed against Chief Walser. (Herald Sept. 6, 2002 story, "Sultan chief files slander claim."
- Related
links of interest:
- Herald Opinion (Oct. 1, 2002): "Sultan Mayor still needs to come clean"
- Letter to Herald editor (Oct. 1, 2002) from current Sultan Councilman (as of 4/17/07) Ron Wiediger, "Glad to welcome chief back"
- There are more than 30 Herald articles related to this illegal action by Mayor Rowe, which was also the final straw for many city leaders desiring to have a professionally-run city government; the result was formation of the Pro-Sultan group (led by then-councilmen Mark Raney, Jeff Everett and Perry McPherson, and many other community leaders). The goal was a ballot vote to revise Sultan's form of government from a Strongman Mayor-Council form to a Council-Manager form. It was an amazingly contentious period of Sultan's history, and we urge citizens to perform the following search: Go the the Herald's Archive page, using this link: (or type or paste this link into your browser window: http://www.heraldnet.com/search/StoryArchive.cfm) In the "Search for" window, insert the words, Fred Walser. Then, under the "Date Options" category, click the "Year" (the round radio button), then choose "2002" as the search year. Depending upon your personal settings, you should come up with the 33 stories related to both Rowe's illegal actions as well as stories re formation of the Pro-Sultan Group. Here's a listing of the stories I found in performing this search. If you cannot find one on the Herald's website, you can also type in the html link shown for a particular story into your browser window. (IF ALL ELSE FAILS: We have scanned in our Herald search results, with the links to each story. CLICK HERE.)
April 2003 - A harassment claim filed against Chief Walser by a former employee. This complaint comes two-plus years after the alleged harassment occurred. (See above note re links)
May 2003 - Interview with Chief Walser when he was put on leave a second time. “I’ve not committed anything, I’ve not done anything wrong. I’m confident I will be vindicated. I’m going to cooperate.” (See above note re links)
July 2003 - State Attorney General investigates harassment claim and fully exonerates Walser. (See above note re links)
Jan. 2004 - Then-Sultan Councilman Rob Criswell's brother was mugged walking home one night from a local restaurant & bar. Councilman Criswell aired his concerns in open council. Chief Walser addresses those concerns that evening. (LINK to ittakesgrit's transcription of in-council discussions re this subject.)
Feb. 2004:
- Criswell incident raised again during the Council's retreat. (See link to transcription in "Jan. 2003" above.)
- Chief Walser defends his officers re Criswell mugging in a city council meeting and expresses concerns over the Department's lack of essential equipment and facilities. “In no way did the PD foul up an investigation. In no way did my officers do one thing wrong. They did everything they've been trained to do. They went well above and beyond what they should do, and I resent the implication of anything different. And this issue has caused a serious moral problem with your police officers, and MUST STOP. They are dedicated men and women who put their life on the line for you, not themselves. And they need better treatment than that. We need better equipment. We need better facilities. We don't have that.” (See link to transcription in "Jan. 2003" above.)
G.R.I.T.-PROVIDED LINKS: This attempt never made it to the "apples-and-apples" comparison phase, as it has in early 2007. Click here to visit the link to our cost analysis performed in 2004 on the Sheriff's proposal, or copy-and-paste the link provided below into your browser's window. The accuracy of the conclusions I reached were corroborated by then-Mayor Tolson. (If the above link does not work, copy and paste the following into your browser window: http://www.ittakesgrit.org/Sultan_PD_Sheriff_proposal_Explanation.htm
March 2004 -Chief Walser requests police funding through a police levy at a Sultan City Council Meeting. “Thank you, Mr. Mayor. About a year ago, December of '02, we asked the council to approve a police special levy. That has not been followed through. We are back, asking the council to authorize a special police levy.”
May 2005 - Chief Walser had the opportunity to have one of his officers receive free training for weight and vehicle inspection of large trucks which results in money going directly back to the city of Sultan. Then-Council Member Criswell expresses concern over paying for police officer training. Council Member Boyd says “There’s no free training Fred." Chief Walser reminds Council that both he and the sergeant cover the shifts, so there is no overtime.
August 2006 - Comment made by Chief Walser at Police Levy Meeting “I was mandated a 15% budget cut in November.”
Throughout 2006:
City ignores the unsafe drop in legally-mandated police officer levels (i.e., "LOS" or "Levels of Service"). Council fully understands this is occurring, yet fails to act. As a result, the city is left understaffed (at one point with only four officers) when relatively minor changes in staff occur. This results in the need to pay overtime for temporary law enforcement officers (thus, the $57,000 budget overrun). Another major problem created by the city council's failure to act was the string of 10 or so plat applications which were sent to Sultan's Hearing Examiner (John Galt) without being able to meet the minimum legal police levels of service to comply with concurrency. This necessitated unprecedented denials of plat applications which were returned to the applicants, causing everyone -- the city, developer(s), property owner(s) and taxpayers -- a great deal of time and effort.
March 15, 2007- Sultan Town Meeting shows overwhelming support for keeping The Sultan Police Department. Sultan City Council continues moving forward with contract pricing for The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department. It is the third comparison in seven years
April 26, 2007- Monroe Monitor opinion by Gerry Gibson “After attending most of the Sultan City Council meetings for about a year and a half and hearing excuse after excuse why there is no money to fund the police, I have had it."
OF INTEREST:
Statement in Oct. 2000 article linked above re the City's failure to address its police levels of service (re C/M Jimmy Porter's attempt to rid the city of its police, and its ethical, No-I-cannot-be-bought Chief Walser). A statement from an excerpt of this story references a comment by Councilman Dr. Mark Raney: "Porter sought the council's approval last month to bring in sheriff's officials to talk about the idea, but the council didn't support that. But Councilman Mark Raney said he thought the council should compare police coverage based on number of calls. 'We are a unique place with a major highway running right through town,' he said. 'I have asked the chief (Fred Walser) to generate numbers that show calls per officer, rather than officers per 1,000 population.' Raney said he also thinks the council needs to consider response time and pointed to an incident recently where Sultan police got to Gold Bar before its sheriff's office coverage did and apprehended a burglary suspect."