Walla Walla County sheriff's deputies Benjamin Olson, left, Dan Teel, center and Tom Beyer talk about the new contract agreement with the county on Thursday, July 20.

A lengthy contract negotiation between the union that represents Walla Walla County sheriff’s deputies and county leaders concerning pay increases appears headed to a resolution.

Several deputies told the Union-Bulletin they were surprised the Walla Walla County Commissioners, whom they described as supportive of their needs in the past, were not being supportive during contract talks.

The two sides have been negotiating a new three-year contract since June 29, 2022 — for about 13 months.

“It seemed sort of out character for them (the commissioners), in our opinion, because generally, these (negotiations) don’t go on so long,” said Deputy Dan Teel, the sergeant-at-arms for the Walla Walla Commissioned Deputies Association — the union that represents the Walla Walla County sheriff’s deputies.

However, deputies now think the lengthy process was the result of botched communications and that a deal has been verbally agreed to by both sides, a last-minute development that avoids the next step of binding arbitration.

Broken communication

“We began to expect there were miscommunications going on,” Teel said.

He said the two sides had been communicating through their respective legal counsel.

This month, the union bypassed attorneys and sent a copy of their last offer — originally sent in May — directly to Walla Walla County commissioners Jenny Mayberry, Todd Kimball and Gunner Fulmer.

“It became very apparent that they were not aware of what our final offer was,” he said.

Teel said the two sides were closer than anyone had realized.

After further conversations, it became evident that the union also had not seen at least part of the county’s latest offer.

“I learned that the commissioners had offered an extra percentage on the Spanish/bilingual pay that wasn’t forwarded to us,” said Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Detective Jimmy Greco, who is the union president. “That highlighted that there were miscommunications on both sides.”

Binding arbitration

The miscommunications almost pushed the county and union into binding arbitration. Greco said the deputies’ union is the only union of Walla Walla County employees that has binding arbitration in its contract.

Unlike other unions, members of Walla Walla Commissioned Deputies Association are not allowed to strike. But if commissioners cannot come to an agreement with the union, they can have a jointly agreed upon arbitrator — provided by a third-party agency — decide the conflict.

“It was our belief … that we were probably going to end up headed to arbitration,” Teel said. “We were starting down that road … (We were) at a point where people weren’t even willing to continue to negotiate through mediation anymore. Our understanding was that they had given their final offer, and we had given ours. Our mediation was basically done.”

New deal

Terms have been verbally accepted by both sides, but the actual deal is still being finalized, so details have not yet been made public.

However, according to union leaders, all deputies will get an 8% raise in 2023 — for which they will receive retroactive pay from the beginning of the year — a 6% raise in 2024 and a 5% raise in 2025.

A new deputy with the WWCSO currently starts with a salary of $5,004 a month, according to a document provided to the Union-Bulletin by the union.

Deputies make more depending on how long they have worked for the office. For example, after their third year on the job, they make $5,744 a month.

The pay rate also goes up depending on the deputy’s education.

The new raises apply to all deputies, regardless of where they are on the pay scale.

The Walla Walla County commissioners declined to answer questions for this story.

Mayberry, the board’s chair, wrote in an email, “The safety of our deputies is one of our top priorities; however, we cannot comment further at this time due to ongoing contract negotiations.”

Need for the raise

Union members said the increased pay is needed to keep deputies from leaving their jobs to work for other agencies.

Union reps provided the U-B with documents that show that WWCSO deputies earn appreciably less pay than their counterparts at neighboring agencies.

According to the documents, officers from the Walla Walla and College Place police departments, as well as those from all the Tri-City agencies, all make more than WWCSO deputies.

Sometimes, much more. A five-year deputy with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office with no college degree makes $8,439 a month, compared to $6,359 in Walla Walla County.

This, Walla Walla County deputies said, leads to low staffing levels. They said the office is often on its minimum-allowed patrol levels of three deputies on the clock at a time.

And lots of mandatory overtime is needed to keep those minimum levels.

This often means two deputies in the Walla Walla area and one in the Burbank area, they said, so it is not uncommon for deputies to respond to dangerous situations alone.

This also means not being able to implement some de-escalation tactics required by recent police reform laws in Washington that often require multiple officers to implement. Teel said Walla Walla deputies like some of those de-escalation tactics and want to be able to use them.

“Everyone has their own opinion on police reform, but some good stuff came from it,” Teel said. “Whether you like it or not, some good stuff came out if it. One of those good things is it’s not a good idea to have one guy do some of these things by themselves.”

He said additional officers can make it safer for everyone and will result in force being used less often.

“If it’s just me against somebody else, my options are much more limited on how I can handle the situation,” he said. “And somebody looking at being arrested is a lot more likely to resist if they only have to overcome one deputy, instead of two.”

Strong relationship

Both before and after reaching a verbal agreement, union leaders told the U-B they had a strong relationship with the Walla Walla County commissioners.

Greco and Teel said the commissioners have supported deputies when they needed equipment such as body cameras, new police vehicles and new radios.

Mayberry, a firefighter and paramedic, and Fulmer, a retired police officer, both campaigned on public safety.

So the situation deriving from the miscommunication left deputies baffled.

“We have a good relationship with all three commissioners,” said Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Beyer, the union’s secretary. “We looked at each other and said, this is weird. Two of them ran on public safety. They are not dishonest people. Something is not right.”

Teel said getting on the same page has made things right.

“Things make sense again,” he said.