Sheriff’S Officers Seek Longevity Pay County Checking To See Why Fringe Benefit Isn’T Going To Them

Top administrators in the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office say they are being unfairly denied a fringe benefit available to other county workers.

At issue is longevity pay, extra money that rewards employees who have spent a fixed amount of time working in county government.

Employees in the Sheriff’s Office who rank above sergeant do not get longevity pay.

But the four appointed members of Sheriff Mark Sterk’s cabinet and the union representing the sheriff’s lieutenants recently asked county commissioners to begin giving them the benefit.

Commissioners have not met to discuss the issue.

The request covers 19 employees, whose salaries range from $66,000 to $85,000 per year. If commissioners agree to the request, it could cost the county as much as $40,000 up front and $13,600 a year thereafter.

Some of administrators say they are ready to take the dispute to court if they can’t negotiate a settlement with county commissioners.

“We don’t want to get in a ruckus. We just want what’s fair,” sheriff’s Inspector David Wiyrick said.

Longevity pay gives longtime employees a percentage of their salary on top of their regular wages. The longer the employee’s career with the county, the higher the percentage.

For most county workers, the rate starts at 4 percent for more than 10 years of continuous service and rises to 10 percent for someone with more than 25 years.

Not all county employees get the benefit. Some unions have negotiated longevity pay for other benefits, and some employees not represented by unions have signed contracts that specifically exclude them from earning longevity pay.

But hundreds of others do get the extra money, including some high-ranking county employees not represented by unions.

Sheriff’s administrators recently learned they weren’t receiving the benefit and tried to find out why, said Lt. Danny O’Dell, president of the sheriff’s Lieutenant Association.

No one in county human resources seemed to know, O’Dell said. “We’re not coming up with anything that says we should not have it,” he said.

Wiyrick and O’Dell said sheriff’s administrators are ready to settle for substantially less than 10 percent of salary - somewhere from $46 to $98 per month, depending on the administrator’s longevity. Any retroactive payment would go back three years.

“We’re not trying to be greedy about this thing,” O’Dell said.

Gary Carlsen, the county’s labor relations manager, is researching the case to see if past sheriff’s administrators negotiated the benefit away.

“It’s certainly a legitimate question,” said Carlsen, who is expected to provide a report to county commissioners next week.

Former Sheriff Larry Erickson sent Carlsen a letter in January saying he believes lieutenants and captains agreed in the mid-1970s to have longevity pay rolled into their regular salary.

That would make them unable to get the benefit now.

Carlsen also said the Lieutenant Association’s recent contract doesn’t specify that the members should receive longevity pay.

“If the contract is silent, then they probably do not get it,” he said.

NEXT County commissioners are expected to schedule an executive session in the next few weeks to discuss the issue.