By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
If all goes according to plan the city of Medical Lake will delegate law enforcement duties to the Spokane County Sheriff's Department sometime in early November, according to City Administrator Doug Ross.
“We sent the contracts off to the county, now we're just waiting to receive them back with mark-ups,” Ross said. Although the city made a few changes to the deal in recent weeks, including an agreement to allow for the hiring of five officers instead of four, Ross said he doesn't foresee the deal not going ahead.
“I don't see this not happening,” Ross said. “This changeover is a necessity due to our circumstances… we really have no choice in the matter.”
Spokane County Sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan said Monday the contract had already been “fine-tuned” on their end and everything will be ready to move forward by Nov. 1.
The original timeline of October was pushed back a month to allow for five of the city's existing police force to complete the application process for reinstatement as county officers.
The officers are now undergoing a testing process administered to all county law enforcement applicants, including physical, written, integrity, polygraph and psychological exams. While there is no guarantee of employment, Ross said “as long as they qualify they should be hired.”
Nancy Hoskins with the county's civil service commission said all of the Medical Lake officers have completed entry-level exams and are now in the psychological and polygraph portion of testing. While she said she isn't sure how long the process will take to complete, testing personnel are “striving to meet the November timeline.”
Following more than a year of discussion, City Council members unanimously agreed to the idea of contracting police services after months searching for a new police chief proved fruitless. The contract is modeled after similar agreements fashioned by the cities of Deer Park and Spokane Valley which also delegate police duties to the Sheriff's office.
Ross said while there are not yet any final numbers the price for this is expected to be around $700,000 a year, roughly $150,000 less than current costs.
Ross said he couldn't account for the feelings of all those in the community, but a presentation in July by Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich seems to have soothed most opposition to the plan. At that meeting, Knezovich said he would offer current police staff the opportunity to stay on as long as they meet Sheriff's Office requirements, assuring residents they would have access to Crime Check and 911 in order to reach officers any time day or night.
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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