Tulalip Democrat loses sheriff's endorsement

By Emily Heffter
Times Snohomish County Bureau

Rick Bart is the sheriff of Snohomish County.

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The deputies were about to protest outside a town-hall meeting on the Tulalip Reservation where Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon was discussing his proposed 2005 budget.

Tulalip police asked the deputies to move their protest because of a rule against political demonstrations at Quil Ceda Village, the tribes' retail development.

Bart called the incident "very embarrassing." He said he is withdrawing his support of McCoy, D-Tulalip, because he is the general manager of Quil Ceda Village and he called tribal police about the protest. McCoy said he got a call from "a citizen" and called Tulalip Tribes Police Chief J.A. Goss, Jr. at home.

Bart and McCoy have worked together for several years on a state bill to cross-commission tribal police officers, giving them sheriff's commissions, so they can arrest non-Indians on the Indian land.

Goss is cross-commissioned as a county sheriff's deputy, but Bart said he will withdraw Goss' commission on Monday and withdraw his support of McCoy's cross-commissioning bill.

Bart said he thinks Reardon called McCoy to report the protest, a charge McCoy and Reardon spokesman Mark Funk deny. Reardon couldn't be reached for comment.

McCoy said he's disappointed about the sheriff's decision to now support his Republican opponent in the 38th district, businesswoman Kim Halvorson.

Funk said Reardon didn't mind the protesting sheriff's deputies, who also showed up at Reardon's town-hall budget meetings Monday and Tuesday night. The deputies are upset over cuts Reardon recommended last month to the sheriff's 2005 budget, as well as their lack of a contract.

Sgt. Ty Trenary, the president of the Deputy Sheriff's Association, which organized the protest, said Reardon told him at the Monday meeting that he was "disappointed and disgusted" that the deputies were there to protest.

Later, he said, the executive was polite and invited the deputies to stay late to express their concerns.
 
The Tulalip incident was embarrassing, Trenary said, but he isn't blaming the Tulalip police, who he said had "a job to do, too."

"Do I think politics are involved? Absolutely. But I'm not necessarily going to go off on a revenge thing with those officers," he said.

He was hopeful that the event might lead to a long-awaited contract agreement. The deputies have been working without a contract for a year and a half, in part, because of a disagreement with the sheriff over how their shifts are assigned.

Bart said last night he would give deputies more of a say in determining their shifts. He said that would shift the burden to the executive's office, because the other issues holding up the contract — disagreements over pay and benefits — are primarily Reardon's responsibility.

Emily Heffter: 425-783-0624 or eheffter@seattletimes.com

Snohomish County bureau staff reporter Diane Brooks contributed to this report.