Police chief civil service protection will remain

Grand Coulee’s new police chief will have civil service protection because of action the city council took Dec. 16.

The council undid work from its previous meeting when members had been persuaded by Mayor Chris Christopherson and city attorneys to remove civil service protection when the city hires its new chief of police.

The back-and-forth council action came after the mayor previously had stated that he would let the Civil Service Commission do its work in advertising for and testing police chief applicants.

A few weeks ago the council had voted to remove the chief from protection and then two weeks later (last Tuesday night) repealed that ordinance.

Now things are back on the original track.

Government jobs are put under civil service protocols to keep them away from political pressure.

The city’s Civil Service Commission has received six applicants to its advertisements for a new chief, published both in The Star newspaper and in statewide law enforcement journals.

Now the Civil Service Commission is arranging background checks, oral and written testing. When that is complete, the commission will offer up its top three candidates to be considered by the mayor.

When Christopherson got the council to remove the chief from protection, he offered up a bone to council members, stating in the ordinance that he would run his candidate past them before naming a chief.

That portion of the ordinance still stands, so council members will get an opportunity to support or reject the mayor’s choice.

Last Tuesday the mayor was challenged on a related matter by Councilmember Paul Townsend.

Townsend said that the council should have set the salary parameters for both the chief and city employees. He said the council wasn’t informed of either.

It also came up that the mayor’s initial offering to Electric City for a police coverage contract had soured relations between the two cities.

The mayor had proposed a plan under which Electric City would pay over $200,000 the first year of a new contract, and by the end of the fifth year would pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars. This year (2014), the final year in the current 5-year contract, Electric City paid $77,000.

That issue has been stalled since the cities’ two police committees had met and agreed to a $115,000 contract for 2015.

Grand Coulee Councilmember Tom Poplawski insisted that the two sides needed to get together to negotiate a contract. He and Erin Nielsen will represent Grand Coulee and John Nordine and Aaron Derr will represent Electric City when the two sides get together for a meeting scheduled for Dec. 23.

Coulee Dam has also made an offer to police Electric City.