Hasson Criticizes Raises For Sheriff’s Officials Commissioner Calls For An End To Union-Tied Pay Increases For Management
About six years ago, the Spokane County commission decided to start awarding annual pay raises to the sheriff and his top brass based on what deputies and correctional officers negotiated through their unions.
It’s been expensive.
Starting today, eight sheriff’s officials will receive nearly $20,000 in total salary hikes.
County Commissioner Steve Hasson, who helped authorize the union-tied increases, said it’s time they end.
The sheriff, he said, has a conflict of interest when negotiating union contracts because his raise is tied to that of union members. In addition, Hasson said, a 3.1 percent salary increase - this year’s figure - is a lot more cash on top of a lieutenants’ $65,000 salary than on a deputy’s $30,000 wage.
Sheriff John Goldman, for example, eclipses the $90,000-a-year salary mark today.
Hasson said he didn’t see the fine print when he signed off on the Sheriff’s Department raises and has asked Goldman to devise another formula.
“How can he defend against a 3 percent or 5 percent or 15 percent (union pay raise) when that same Christmas package ends up under his tree?” Hasson asked.
Goldman stands behind his management staff as comparable in size and pay to other departments that cover areas the size of Spokane County. But he said he would consider tying his - and only his - future raises to something other than union pay hikes.
Lieutenants, however, deserve the stability of knowing how much their raises will be and that they will be competitive, Goldman said.
Top-ranked officers are not paid overtime even though they often work extra hours, the sheriff said.
Without the union-based pay hikes, Goldman said his lieutenants likely would form a collective bargaining unit and would qualify for overtime - an added county expense.
“This is part of a multiyear contract,” he said. “At the 11th hour, it sometimes becomes a political football. I don’t want to politicize their pay.”
The deputies and correctional officers are in the third and final year of contracts, which must be renegotiated for next year.
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