Bureau police contract may expire next spring

Citing its current "security posture," Bureau of Reclamation staff has told the Grand Coulee city clerk the agency does not intend to renew its $750,000 annual contract for law enforcement services with the city.

The agreement, which has been amended and renewed since it began in 2017, is set to expire May 31 of next year.

"As of now, we will not be renewing unless our security posture changes, and it is required," the Bureau's contract specialist wrote to the clerk last month.

Although that email was not a formal notice of intent, it seems unlikely to change, Clerk Lorna Pearce told the city council at its Aug. 20 meeting.

"Myself as a finance person, I'm going to say at this point in time that we should move forward at budget time as if we are not going to be getting those dollars or cents," Pearce said.

The Bureau has contracted with the Grand Coulee Police Department for law enforcement services since 2017.

While the Bureau employs its own elite "Security Response Force," those officers are trained to respond to acts of foreign or domestic terrorism targeting the Grand Coulee Dam – not the more common aspects of community-level policing such as responding to alleged trespassing, vandalism, or assaults on federal properties at and around the dam.

At the council meeting Grand Coulee Police Officer Andrew Kline said he and the mayor had talked about proposing a smaller-scale contract that would fund one additional patrol officer position. The current contract provides for around four, but the Bureau's call volume hasn't actually demanded that level of service.

"I've been in touch with some of the administration over there," Kline told the council. "What I want to propose is - just throw it out there to them, see if they like it - let's offer law enforcement services, but not the traditional, dedicated, 9/11-style. We could reduce our staffing, and just cover it like we did the Electric City contract.

"I would propose...reducing it from 750 (thousand dollars) annually," Kline continued. "Let's make them an offer for 150 (thousand dollars). That's perfectly suitable based on their call volume, and what we offer them. That would allow us to fill one more officer position. It would give us a comfortable staffing arrangement. I think it would show them that we still want to offer the services, but we don't want to break the bank."

The contract Kline envisions would involve GCPD officers attending Bureau "roll call" twice a day - essentially, a change-of-shift report between jurisdictions regarding current or emerging safety, security or crime issues.

"If we don't at least propose something, I think that would be a missed opportunity," Kline said.

The Star requested a copy of the current contract between the Bureau and Grand Coulee, but neither Clerk Pearce nor the Bureau's public information officer, Nikki Tonasket, would release it.

"For security reasons, we cannot provide information on the law enforcement contract with the City of Grand Coulee," Tonasket wrote in an email Tuesday.

As of August 30, Interim Police Chief Levi Johnson said he had not received any further updates from the Bureau.