Somers, Lovick clash over new contract for county employees

EVERETT — Wrangling over a new contract for Snohomish County government employees has created another ugly dust-up between two Democrats competing for the executive’s job.

Executive John Lovick’s administration has been negotiating a three-year contract with the AFSCME-affiliated union that represents more than 1,500 county workers.

The union has been among Lovick’s strongest supporters as he tries to win a four-year term in office this November.

County Council Chairman Dave Somers is competing for the executive’s job and finished ahead of Lovick in the Aug. 4 primary. Long before he became a candidate for executive, Somers had challenged Lovick’s financial policies.

The latest flash point was a Wednesday council meeting, when Somers pushed through legislation to turn down a tentative contract agreement Lovick’s office negotiated with the union. The council chairman accused the executive of violating the county charter by straying outside the guidelines the council already set for the contract.

Somers told a room packed with about 100 frustrated union workers that it was better to act now than to wait until employees voted on a contract the council would not endorse.

“We are at an all-time low in our reserves,” he said. “The economy is doing well, county finances are not. We have a responsibility as a county to look at the entire budget.”

Somers was joined by Democratic Councilman Terry Ryan and Republican Councilman Ken Klein in passing a motion rejecting the tentative agreement. They ordered the executive instead to come up with a deal consistent with the direction they’d provided, including future pay and benefits.

Councilmembers Stephanie Wright and Brian Sullivan, who both support Lovick, cast dissenting votes.

“I’ve never seen a motion like this,” Wright said. “I don’t approve of the process.”

Sullivan said they should put the issue “back where it belongs, in executive session.”

Ryan said the executive offered cost-of-living increases that go beyond the inflation benchmarks in the Consumer Price Index. He said he’d have a hard time looking employees in the eye if he approved that raise, then had to lay off parts of the county workforce to make budget.

“I feel terrible about the situation,” he said. “We didn’t create it. It was dumped in our laps.”

Lovick called the council’s vote “a slap in the face” for county workers. He said county negotiators have been acting in good faith.

“These employees are skilled and hardworking women and men dedicated to delivering a variety of essential services to the community, from engineering our roads and bridges to providing nursing services to our most vulnerable citizens,” he said in a press release.

Lovick also called the council’s action “unjustified and unprecedented in the history of Snohomish County.” He said it put the county “at risk for an almost certain unfair labor practice allegation by the union.”

The executive acknowledged that some county employees could lose jobs next year, but contends that has nothing to do with the current negotiations.

“If we have layoffs, it will not be because of this contract,” he said.

It’s up to the union to decide whether negotiations continue, Lovick said.

The union’s old master agreement expired at the end of 2014. It included cost-of-living increase of 1.35 percent for the first year of the contract and 1.5 percent for the next two.

It’s common for local governments to finalize a new union contract months after the old one has expired.

Terms of the new contract aren’t available to the public. Union officials and Lovick said county council members haven’t even read it. Somers said he’s been demanding an update from the executive for more than two months and has yet to receive one.

Typically, details such as pay, medical benefits and leave get hashed out behind closed doors before a proposal reaches the council for a vote.

“We are asking you guys here to respect the process, to respect the negotiations and to respect the employees,” Matthew Miller, a staff representative for the union, told council members Wednesday.

After the vote, Miller raised his voice to tell the room: “This is unacceptable.”

Union president Chris Dugovich criticized Somers directly.

“He’s playing politics,” he said. “He’s going to knock all of the employees down in an attempt to be elected.”

Dugovich heads up the Washington State Council of County and City Employees, whose 16,000-plus members include more than half of Snohomish County employees.

The public-employee union has donated $1,900 to Lovick’s re-election. Firefighters, sheet metal and healthcare unions figure prominently among the incumbent’s other backers.

Somers has not attracted strong union support, but has raised about $91,000 so far — nearly double Lovick’s total. Large chunks of Somers’ support have come from homebuilders, environmentalists and aerospace interests.

For more than a year, a majority of the council has been locked in an ongoing battle with the executive’s office over pay raises for managers.

Last year, the council revoked 10 percent raises for some of Lovick’s top managers. They said the executive followed an incorrect process that isn’t allowed under county code.

This year, the same three-member bloc of the council rolled back a 21 percent raise that Lovick had approved for Sara Bhagat, an attorney who oversees parts of the system that provides lawyers to indigent defendants. She happens to be the daughter of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. In May, the executive raised Bhagat’s pay 25 percent, to $108,124.92, using a different method.

Somers and his council allies said the manager raises set an unrealistic precedent for the rest of the county workforce.

Budget challenges include the potential loss of about $5 million in sales tax revenue at Quil Ceda Village, the flailing county courthouse project and costs from the Oso mudslide. While some council members sound the alarm about what that means, the executive’s office gives county finances a more upbeat assessment. Lovick issued a press release last week about ratings agencies giving the county a strong bond rating and stable outlook.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood fully blocks Highway 99

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.