City to seek new police chief, rebuild depart.

Grand Coulee has decided to re-advertise its police chief position, signaling an intent to rebuild its own department rather than contracting out with another jurisdiction.

“I am recommending here that we go ahead and set out to hire our own chief of police at this point,” Mayor Ruth Dalton told the council at its Oct. 15 meeting. “We need to kind of take care of this as soon as possible here, to get our police department back where it needs to be.”

The council approved an annual salary range of $110,000 to $130,000 for the police chief job — an exempt, non-union position at the city. Dalton said the previous police chief’s salary was in that range as well, and that it was “competitive.”

The council approved of the salary range unanimously, and it now falls to the city’s Civil Service Commission to advertise the position.

At that commission’s Oct. 9 meeting, commissioners Rick Paris and Nikki Tonasket indicated approval of an updated job description, which now requires eight years of law enforcement experience rather than just two previously. (One Civil Service Commission seat is vacant; Commissioner Travis Irwin had to resign since he now lives outside Grand Coulee city limits.)

At the Oct. 15 council meeting, Councilmember Mark Nash wondered if the council could set a minimum length of time a new chief would be required to stay.

“We can’t really dictate that to anybody,” Clerk Lorna Pearce said. Cities sometimes require minimum contracts with brand new officers, since municipalities put up a lot of money to get the proper required training for new recruits, but hiring an experienced administrator is different.

Earlier this year, Grand Coulee received materials from five applicants seeking to replace retiring Chief John Tufts. The Civil Service Commission forwarded three of those candidates to then-mayor Mike Eylar. Eylar did not end up hiring a permanent chief but was in talks to appoint Levi Johnson as acting chief, when Eylar himself resigned from office for health reasons.

Johnson served as acting chief for four months and resigned to take an investigator job with state Adult Protective Services, which investigates allegations of abuse or neglect of vulnerable adults including elders and those with cognitive or developmental disabilities.

Currently, Grand Coulee Officer Chris Backus is acting officer in charge of the department. Backus was hired in August, having previously worked for Tenino Police Department and Tukwila PD. Backus does not appear to possess the eight years of experience as a commissioned law enforcement officer required for the Grand Coulee chief position, three years of which must be as a supervisor or commanding officer. 

Whoever is hired to lead the department will supervise fewer officers than Chief Tufts did. The city’s contract to provide police services to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ends Nov. 1. The contract accounted for four patrol positions on the force. 

Currently, the department consists of Backus, Officer Andrew Kline, and two officers on family/medical leave: Colin Hopper and Sgt. Dan Holland.