EVERETT
Three months into a shotgun marriage between the Snohomish County jail and the sheriff’s office, the honeymoon is off to a good start.
With the two law enforcement functions under one roof, overtime for corrections officers has dropped to about half of last year’s levels. Labor grievances have tapered off dramatically.
And jail management has reported trimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from its payroll since the department moved from County Executive Aaron Reardon’s office.
A progress report to the County Council this week brought glowing praise.
“The key priority is, are things going well at the jail?” said County Councilman Dave Gossett, who leads the council’s law and justice committee. “Are things running smoothly, and do we have a system that’s doing what it needs to do in term of our budget? The answer, right now, is yes.”
In November, the council voted 4-1 to disband the corrections department. On Jan. 1, the jail’s 360 workers joined Sheriff John Lovick’s roster as the Corrections Bureau. With the merger, Lovick oversees the largest county department, with about 720 employees — about a quarter of all county workers.
Initially, there was some trepidation about the merger, Gossett said, because some doubted it would help run the jail more efficiently and save money. It’s still early, but he likes what he sees.
Only Councilman John Koster opposed the change at the time, saying there hadn’t been enough time to research the issue.
The sheriff asked for quarterly updates. The first one came last week.
The results were important for the county financially, because of the jail’s budget of well over $30 million.
All told, public safety departments, attorneys and courts account for about 70 percent of Snohomish County’s roughly $200 million general fund budget.
Savings estimates from the merger weren’t available last week, but comparisons between the first quarters of 2009 and 2008 might show what direction things appear to be headed.
Sick leave for jail workers, who now are called custody deputies, has dipped 8 percent, mandatory overtime by 90 percent, and total overtime by 50 percent.
Jail management reported saving $166,000 by holding vacant positions open, plus $45,000 by replacing the two top administrators with people from the sheriff’s office.
Labor relations also appear to be improving. Last year, legal costs from jail-related labor negotiations cost more than $1 million.
“To make this work, we’ve got to have 300-and-something people on board. And largely, I think we have them on board,” said Maj. Doug Jeske, part of the sheriff’s new management team at the lockup.
So far, labor grievances are down about 70 percent compared with the first quarter of last year, to eight from 25. None of the current grievances are headed to arbitration, said Andy Pierce, the corrections guild president.
The guild represents 215 corrections workers. The Teamsters represent the rest of the staff, including support workers and supervisors.
Sheriff’s Office Administrative Bureau Chief Rob Beidler said the changes are similar to ones that Lovick put in place at the sheriff’s office last year.
“We saved the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2008,” Beidler said. “Now, with the jail, we’re doing the same thing.”
A drop in the jail’s average daily inmate population also has helped. It was down 6 percent from the 1,262 expected this year. That means more space for business from places such as the Department of Corrections and Skagit County, which pay about $70 per day per inmate.
Noah Haglund writes for the Herald of Everett.
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