Councilman Richard Rush introduces resolution to challenge repeal of police ombudsman ordinance.
The Center for Justice has confirmed with the City Clerk’s office that the Spokane City Council has re-scheduled its final hearing and vote on the repeal of the city’s police ombudsman ordinance from August 15th to August 22nd.
Spokane Councilman Richard Rush
Council President Joe Shogan announced August 1st that the council would be moving to repeal the June 2010 measure that authorized the Office of Police Ombudsman to conduct independent investigations and file independent closing reports. Shogan said the repeal measure in needed to respond to an arbitrator’s opinion, delivered July 11th, demanding the city rescind the ordinance because it violates Spokanes collective bargaining agreement with the Spokane Police Guild.
At the same August 1 meeting, Shogan sparred with city councilman Richard Rush when Rush announced he would be introducing a resolution to challenge the arbitrator’s decision. His resolution has since been introduced and it makes several of the points that the Center for Justice and emphasized in a June 26th letter to city officials.
Rush’s resolution emphasizes a point that the arbitrator, Michael Beck, made in the introduction to his ruling.
“The problem with PERC’s [the Public Employment Relations Commission] deferral [to arbitration] in this case,” Beck wrote, “is that whether or not the Employer’s conduct is protected or prohibited by the Collective Bargaining Agreement depends upon whether or not the changes here can be considered mandatory subjects of bargaining or permissive subjects of bargaining. This determination is appropriately one that should be made by PERC…”
Seconding Beck, Rush’s resolution contends that assigning the issue to the arbitrator was “an act contrary” to state rules, promulgated by PERC which assign to PERC jurisdiction over rulings about what subjects are mandatory or non-mandatory matters for collective bargaining.
Critics of Beck’s ruling, including the Center, point to a 2009 PERC ruling affirming that cities have the discretion to implement independent police oversight activities so long as those activities don’t affect employee working conditions, such as officer discipline. The 2009 PERC ruling, in a case involving the City of Seattle and its police department, was reached on appeal to PERC after a hearing examiner sided with the Seattle police guild.
Rush’s proposed resolution underscores that part of the 2010 ordinance that directly bars the Spokane ombudsman from playing any role in the disciplining of police officers. The resolution also asserts that if the city repeals the 2010 ordinance, the Spokane ombudsman office will no longer be able to comply with the code of ethics for independent police oversight promulgated by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE). Following passage of the 2010 ordinance, the Spokane OPO announced it had adopted the code.
The resolution would call upon the Mayor and City Attorney to “take immediate steps” to ensure PERC retains jurisdiction on the issue and that PERC “or an appropriate judicial authority,” make the final determination as to whether the powers invested in the OPO under the 2010 ordinance are consistent with state law.
—CFJ
