City, Spokane Police Guild announce tentative deal on new contract

After a ringing rejection and stinging disappointment last year, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward and leaders of the Spokane Police Guild have proposed a new labor agreement that they say ensures civilian oversight of the city’s police department.

A tentative five-year agreement announced Friday would offer the city’s officers a cumulative $9.5 million raise while rising to the standards of police accountability laid out by the Spokane City Charter, according to city officials.

It would be the Guild’s first new labor contract since the previous version expired in 2016.

“This contract meets the dual needs of the community to show support for our police officers and also to really gain greater clarity on civilian oversight,” Woodward said at a news conference Friday, adding that the city has been a “leader” on police reform.

The agreement spans 2016 through the end of the year, with a 3% pay raise applied each year retroactively and in 2021.

“This is fair. We are at the end. We’re thankful for cooperation from the mayor and council president and we hope to see a positive vote from council,” said Spokane Police Guild President Kris Honaker.

The proposal requires the ratification of the Guild’s members and the Spokane City Council, which last year unanimously voted against a contract that council members claimed didn’t meet the bar for independent civilian oversight under police oversight rules approved by city voters in 2013.

After that blow last June, the city and Guild upended the traditional process and invited Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs to a seat at the bargaining table. The direct negotiating among Beggs, Woodward and Guild leaders resulted in a deal.

“That disappointment, as painful as it was, really gave us an opportunity to hear each other out,” Woodward said.

Oversight

The ability of the guild to negotiate the terms of its own oversight have been a central sticking point in the years-long standoff.

But Beggs said Friday that the new agreement resolves concerns he had over the version voted down by council last year.

The tentative agreement now explicitly authorizes, for the first time, the Spokane Police ombudsman, the department’s civilian watchdog, to publish closing reports after a complaint against an officer is fully investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs department.

“They do get to give the public their perception of what most likely happened in any particular incident,” Beggs said.

The new agreement ensures the ombudsman’s ability to independently investigate an incident, even one that the police department declines to look into. It also clarifies a clause in the previous proposal that empowered the Guild to ask a labor arbitrator to remove the ombudsman from their post.

Issues between the Guild and ombudsman’s office or Ombudsman Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the ombudsman’s office, could be raised in an “arbitration type of process,” Beggs said, but only to determine if the labor agreement has been violated.

“It has nothing to do with the discipline or removal of an ombudsperson staff or (Ombudsman) commissioner,” Beggs said.

Honaker said the Guild does not oppose oversight.

“We want to be at the forefront of change,” Honaker said.

Councilman Michael Cathcart signaled support for the agreement.

“I see the independent investigatory power of the ombuds as actually a tool for our law enforcement officers,” Cathcart said. “I think it’s a way for them to be able to move past unfounded complaints that really had no basis in fact.”

Spokane Police Ombudsman Bart Logue was allowed to make suggestions during the contract during negotiations, according to city officials.

Under city law, the Ombudsman does not have the authority to discipline officers, which is left to the police chief. Instead, the Ombudsman’s office fields civilian complaints and forwards them to Internal Affairs for investigation. Once the inquiry is wrapped up, the ombudsman can choose whether to certify its integrity.

Debates over police oversight have lingered in Spokane since the 2006 death of Otto Zehm, a developmentally disabled janitor who died after he was beaten by police after he was wrongly implicated in a possible theft at a convenience store.

As an attorney, Beggs successfully represented Zehm’s family in a subsequent civil lawsuit that resulted in a $1.67 million settlement agreement with the city.

Zehm’s death sparked calls for police oversight that ultimately led to the creation of the Office of the Police Ombudsman.

A pay raise

Aside from matters of police accountability, both sides have financial incentive to reach a deal.

Officers have gone without a contracted pay increase for more than four years. Meanwhile, the stalemate throws fiscal uncertainty into the budget-planning process for city officials, who are aware that a deal would likely include back pay.

The pay raises total $9.5 million over the five-year contract. The city’s 2021 budget already covers this year’s raise, but the funds for the previous four years will be pulled from city reserves.

Honaker voiced pride in the guild’s members, who continued to work without a new contract and pay raises, noting it is a “difficult time to be a police officer with all the things happening nationally.”

“This has been an unprecedented, long time to go without a contract … I’m not going to sugarcoat it, we have members that are upset,” Honaker said.

Last year’s proposal was swept up in ongoing protests over racial injustice and police brutality after the killing of George Floyd, with activists and community organizations imploring the City Council to turn it down.

The agreement was also lambasted by Logue before the council’s vote, a decision the Guild quickly denounced.

Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson said the new agreement will “help move our community forward” and “lays the groundwork for the next” contract.

“Reform has started, and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Wilkerson said.

Beginning after last June’s vote, the City Council was involved in the negotiations directly for the first time in Woodward’s short tenure or that of former Mayor David Condon, who left office in 2019.

“The fact that Breean got to be in the room and talk with the guild made all the difference,” said Councilwoman Lori Kinnear. “They no longer saw Breean or the council as the enemy, but actually people who were willing to work with them.”

The council is expected to vote on the contract on March 1. If approved, negotiations on an agreement that covers 2022 and beyond will begin later this year.