WATCH: Pierce County Sheriff Swank laments stalled contract negotiations

(The Center Square) – Six weeks after Pierce County Sheriff’s Office deputies overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer for a 10% raise over three years, there is no evidence of any progress in negotiations.

“We’re still at an impasse and it’s going to go to arbitration, unfortunately,” Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank told The Center Square. “The executive hasn’t budged. The problem is I don’t have a say in the compensation package and what they get paid. I should have a say in that, but I don’t.”

On June 9, the Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Independent Guild delivered a 290 to 1 rejection of Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello’s contract offer.

“Public safety in Pierce County starts with the men and women who wear the badge,” read the guild’s news release at the time. “They deserve more than lip service. They deserve a contract that reflects the risks they take and the service they provide. The Executive’s offer simply doesn’t deliver.”

Swank reiterated his desire to have a voice in the negotiations.

“I don’t like that I don’t. I worked for Seattle for 33 years. The chief had a say in it. I have no say in it. We’re sitting in a negotiating room with the union, with their attorneys, and we all came to an agreement, and we say, ‘OK, let’s move it forward.’ The executive has the authority and final say, and he said no,” the sheriff said.

Mello's office is the lead entity negotiating the contract with the union representing the deputies. The Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Independent Guild represents rank-and-file deputies and actively negotiates for their wages, benefits and working conditions with the County Executive's Office.

According to the guild, Pierce County ranks at the bottom in Washington for police staffing per capita, “crippling the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to keep pace with growing demands across a vast jurisdiction. Chronic underfunding and below-market pay have pushed Pierce County further behind in the fight to recruit and retain qualified deputies.”

Competition is stiff, Swank noted.

“Agencies around here are getting paid much more. We are competing with Tacoma, which pays a lot more per officer. We do a lot of other things. We have the jail, they don’t. We have the property room, they don’t. We police more people in unincorporated Pierce County and University Place and Edgewood than they do,” he explained. “We police over half the county ourselves, so they’re [deputies] running from call to call to call, and we need to compensate them fairly.”

As previously reported by The Center Square, the guild even encouraged deputies to look for work in other law enforcement agencies.

“If you are waiting for meaningful compensation from the County Executive’s Office regarding your future, he is not willing to compensate you for it, and we, as a bargaining team, suggest you further your professional career elsewhere,” the guild wrote in an update.

The guild even linked to job applications for nearby police departments in Tacoma, Bonney Lake, Puyallup and Gig Harbor.

Swank said despite the ongoing contract dispute, he hopes qualified applicants will come to work for his department.

“This sheriff’s office is the best place to work. I’m not just saying this because I’m the sheriff. There are so many cool things to do here. You could be on the SWAT team, search and rescue, swift water rescue. It’s very diverse,” he said.

If the department were fully staffed, Swank said it would have 330 deputies. The department currently has 300 deputies.

“That number is low, but I’m not going to go to the county council and ask for more people when I can’t fill the vacancies that I have,” Swank said.

Data shows that the average entry-level deputy in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office makes an hourly wage of $59.45, while their counterparts at the Tacoma Police Department make $69.80. Pierce County deputies with more than 20 years’ experience and a college degree make an hourly compensation of $85.56, whereas a Tacoma police officer with the same experience earns $101.81 an hour.

Swank noted that Auburn police recently agreed on a contract for a 20% pay raise over three years.

“It’s like 12%, then four and four,” he said. “We need at least that.”

The Center Square reached out to Mello’s office, but it did not respond to a request for comment.