SNOHOMISH – The City Council is set tonight to discuss how to deal with a police shortage, and city staff has recommended keeping the interim department head for three more years.
Extending a contract with interim Police Chief John Turner would suspend the recruitment for a new chief.
“He’s got a positive impact on the department, and officers are very positive and supportive of him,” Mayor Randy Hamlin said Monday.
The police department has 21 commissioned officer positions. It is five people short, partly because officers have been hired by other agencies. Three new officers are going through training.
Turner, a former police chief in Mountlake Terrace, came to Snohomish in late February to temporarily fill a vacancy left when former Snohomish Police Chief Gordon Wiborg resigned, said city manager Larry Bauman.
Wiborg stepped down in December while under investigation for sending romantic messages to an officer he supervised.
Because Turner has retired from the Mountlake Terrace Police Department, state regulations prohibit him from holding a commissioned officer position with Snohomish, Bauman said.
But Turner can continue to hold a contracted position, Bauman said. The city now pays Turner $55 per hour.
“We’ve talked about it conceptually,” Bauman said. “He’s willing to do it.”
Turner couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.
Since April 2004, 13 officers have resigned from the city’s police department. Eight of them went on to work for other law enforcement agencies.
Turner has about 36 years of law enforcement experience and is well respected in the region, Bauman said. That could help the city recruit and retain police officers in a competitive hiring market, Bauman said.
In addition to extending a contract with Turner, the city is considering three other options to deal with the staff shortage. The city may hire temporary officers from other agencies or make current officers cancel their summer vacations and work longer hours.
The city also may enter a contract with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office for full-time police service, a move that would disband the city’s police department.
The Snohomish Police Officers’ Guild is opposed to the idea, said Jeff Shelton, the guild’s president.
Contracting with the sheriff’s office would help fill vacancies quickly in the city’s police force, but would also come with a downside, Hamlin said.
“The thing that’s concerning about that option is you lose your local control,” he said.
Council discussion
The Snohomish City Council is set to discuss possible changes at the police department to deal with a staff shortage at 7 p.m. today in the George Gilbertson Boardroom, 1601 Ave. D. For more information, call 360-568-3115.
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