Sims says county can't afford $5 million in Sheriff's Office reforms

The cost of implementing a package of sweeping reforms proposed for the King County Sheriff's Office — including hiring new sergeants, providing better training for all ranks and creating an early-intervention system to deal with problem behavior — is simply too high for a government still dealing with serious budget woes, Metropolitan King County Executive Ron Sims said Monday.

Sims said the county can't afford to implement or provide sustained funding for most of the recommendations made Monday by a 10-member panel charged with identifying ways to improve accountability and public trust in the Sheriff's Office.

Still, he said he supports the panel's recommendation for independent oversight for the office.

But Randy Revelle, a former county executive who headed the panel, said implementing the panel's recommendations could actually save the county money by reducing the amount the Sheriff's Office spends on lawsuits, citizen complaints and fights with labor unions over discipline decisions.

Revelle and a majority of panel members presented their final report to members of the Metropolitan King County Council. Six months in the making, the report lists nine priorities that it says would cost just under $5 million if they were to be implemented between now and the end of 2007.

The report also details 43 findings about the state of the Sheriff's Office and makes six major recommendations with 36 "implementation actions." Recommendations include increasing the number of sergeants — front-line supervisors who are stretched thin — ensuring that commanders are on-duty in all precincts most of the time, and conducting employee performance evaluations, a cultural audit of the office and ongoing audits of policies and procedures.

The panel also suggests the department improve relations with labor representatives, create a clear and consistent approach to discipline, revamp hiring procedures and work to understand why so many recruits fail to make it through their first year on the force.

Though Sims wasn't present for the council presentation and said he had not yet read the final report, his staff has estimated the costs of implementing the recommendations are higher than the roughly $5 million outlined in the report, he said.

Sims said he supports the panel's recommendation to establish an Office of Independent Oversight, led by a civilian director, to monitor misconduct investigations, recommend discipline, track trends related to officer misconduct and respond to the scenes of "critical incidents" involving deputies, such as a shooting involving an officer.

"Independent oversight, I love that, and we will find the money for independent oversight," Sims said.

The sheriff's total 2006 budget was $128.2 million, with $115.6 million coming from the county's general fund and the remainder from a federal grant, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

The almost $5 million that panel members say is needed to implement changes represents about 4 percent of the office's budget.

But over the past four years, Sims said, the Sheriff's Office has been the agency least affected by $137 million in cuts implemented by the county. For the 2007 budget, Sims said government agencies countywide have requested $62 million above the county's projected revenue.

Just by maintaining a budget status quo, Sims estimated there would be an $8 million "budget hole" in 2008 and a $32 million "hole" the following year.

"I've been telling people 'no' all summer and fall," Sims said. "I am not one to say that throwing money at the problem is the solution."

Revelle said many of the panel's recommendations won't cost anything and some can be phased in over several years.

"It would be utterly irresponsible to simply implement an Office of Independent Oversight and not implement a significant number of the other recommendations," he said.

The panel, made up of people with backgrounds in law enforcement, the legal system, labor and county government, was appointed at the request of Sheriff Sue Rahr in response to articles published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The panel report says the P-I highlighted 17 alleged examples of officer misconduct over the past 22 years; according to the newspaper, the series examined more than 30 misconduct cases.

This summer, Rahr filed a complaint against the newspaper with the Washington News Council, claming the P-I stories were intentionally biased and unfair. The P-I, whose top editors have stood behind the reporting, declined to participate in a hearing before the media-watchdog group, citing possible conflicts of interest since some members of the council made campaign contributions to Rahr and her predecessor, Dave Reichert, now a congressman. The P-I also questions the council's ability to be impartial because executive director John Hamer is married to Mariana Parks, district director for Reichert.

Though panel members didn't find evidence of corruption, excessive use of force, racial profiling or widespread misconduct, the panel's vice chairwoman, retired state Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland, said she was struck by the institutional problems that have gone unchecked for years.

"What has come to the fore for me are the systematic problems in the agency — it's not a rogue cop, but problems [resulting] from years of neglect and [limited] resources," Ireland said.

Like Revelle, Ireland said it is important that elected officials "don't cherry-pick from the report and try to make quick fixes because that won't work." The panel's recommendations are meant to work in tandem, building on each other, she said.

For Rahr, the report "was very affirming" because, she said, the panel members "drew many of the same conclusions I did on what we need to do to make this a better organization."

The panel report is "going to be very, very important in helping the council set their budget priorities," she said. "Now it's not just the sheriff saying, 'I need additional resources.' It's a panel that's been working on this for six months."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published September 12, was corrected September 15. An earlier version of this story indicated the blue-ribbon panel review was prompted by reports by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that examined 17 examples of alleged officer misconduct, a number contained in the panel's report. The P-I actually examined more than 30 cases, according to a recent article in the newspaper. In addition, the story indicated the P-I refused to participate in a hearing before the media-watchdog group Washington News Council because of possible conflicts of interest, since some members of the council made campaign contributions to Sheriff Sue Rahr and her predecessor, Dave Reichert. The P-I also questions the council's ability to be impartial because executive director John Hamer is married to Mariana Parks, district director for Reichert, now a congressman. The Times story also quoted the blue-ribbon panel's vice chairwoman, retired state Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland, saying the P-I stories "could've given an exaggerated viewpoint" that the conduct of individual officers was reflective of the entire agency. Ireland says she did not use the word "exaggerated."