The state’s grievance arbitration system was designed to protect public employees from discipline without just cause and violations of their employment contracts. Yet some arbitrator decisions reinstating police officers terminated for criminal activity or alleged criminal activity have called into question whether the arbitration system serves the interest of public trust in law enforcement.
Some law enforcement leaders say they can’t depend on arbitrators to uphold discipline of peace officers who violate the law. They have unsuccessfully proposed legislation that would decertify officers convicted of gross misdemeanors due to strong opposition from labor groups.
In lieu of legislative changes, some law enforcement agencies have sought to bypass arbitrators by coming up with alternative ways to get rid of officers accused or convicted of crimes — such as payoffs in exchange for a resignation — but those methods don’t prevent the officer from taking a job at a different law enforcement agency.
“It comes down to the public trust,” said Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who helped spearhead legislation to address the problem. “The public has to trust that we hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Meanwhile, labor groups say such cases are the exception and not the rule and that the arbitration is the most effective way to give employees and their employers due process during disputes.
Arbitration is the process that happens when a union decides to file a grievance on behalf of one of its members and the union and the employer cannot agree on a settlement.
The arbitrator reviews the group’s collective bargaining agreement and other documents and listens to arguments presented by each side before reaching a decision. In a small number of cases, the decision can be appealed to a court, but most of the decisions are binding.
If she hadn’t lived in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall, Shari Conditt probably would’ve been a doctor instead of a teacher.
Instead, watching history unfold inspired the future Woodland High School history and government teacher, who is now a finalist for Washington’s Teacher of the Year Award. Conditt, a 36-year-old mother of two who lives in Battle Ground, is one of nine finalists from around Washington eagerly waiting for state education officials to announce the winner Monday afternoon in Seattle.
Growing up with two parents in the Army, Conditt frequently moved around the U.S. and spent many of her formative years in Germany going to what she describes as traditional, textbook-based classes. With her high performance in the classroom, Conditt often found school counselors urging her to pursue a career in law, medicine or engineering, but that began to change when she watched her father leave home to patrol the border between East and West Berlin as the wall came crumbling down in 1989.
“I was really lucky to live in Germany during the tail end of the Cold War, which had a huge impact on who I am and what I do in my own classroom,” she said. “The middle school years are a pretty formidable time in a person’s life, and to be able to have that experience there was amazing.”
For Conditt, the experience not only inspired a passion for history. It informed the teaching style she’s developed over the years, moving her students away from textbooks and closer to primary source material, embracing new technology in the classroom and leading activities that put them in the mindset of the figures they study.
“It really puts the kids in the position of decision makers, and it allows them to understand history better when they’re playing the same role as people who experienced it,” she said. “Anytime we can make history come alive for kids, they’re going to engage on a way different level.”
Each stone is unique and storied, and each was shown meticulous care and dedication. Just like each member of the military who was honored and remembered on Saturday.
Project manager Kelly Punteney, who oversaw construction of a new POW/MIA monument in east Vancouver, said momentum and partnerships had come together to get the stone memorial built in “the right place, the right time and the right spirit.”
The Community Military Appreciation Committee masterminded the monument, which was dedicated before a crowd of hundreds. Committee co-chair Larry Smith, an Army veteran and a Vancouver city councilman, emceed the proceedings and reminded everyone that CMAC includes many veterans but is in fact a civic nonprofit organization that’s open to all. Learn more at http://www.cmac11.com.
The monument commands attention in a prominent spot just before the entrance to the Armed Forces Reserve Center, which opened in 2011 at 15005 N.E. 65th St. Punteney said that location would help the monument fulfill its mission: reminding our community about American soldiers who were imprisoned by the enemy, and remembering the ones who never came home.
According to the Department of Defense, there are 83,189 American military personnel currently “unaccounted for.” That includes more than 1,600 from Vietnam, nearly 8,000 from Korea and 73,536 from World War II.
After spending 19 years in a refugee camp, Anita Sarki has a place to call home.
The Beaverton, Ore., resident became an American citizen on Friday. As she was surrounded by friends, Sarki echoed a verse from the Bible: “This is my promised land.”
Sarki was among 33 people who took the oath of allegiance in the fifth annual citizenship ceremony at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The new Americans came from 19 different homelands, including the former Soviet Union.
Sarki was listed as a citizen of Bhutan — even though the kingdom in the eastern Himalayan Mountains expelled her family in the 1990s.
It was part of a long-standing ethnic dispute. Her family had moved to Bhutan generations earlier from nearby Nepal.
“I was born in Bhutan, but I don’t feel Bhutanese,” said Sarki.
Members of that community were declared to be illegal immigrants two decades ago. Along with thousands of others from the Nepali ethnic group, “We had to leave,” she said.
“I spent most of my life in a refugee camp in Nepal,” Sarki said. “I came here in 2008.”
With big decisions ahead on how to improve and maintain Vancouver’s single largest asset — its streets — members of the city council met Friday morning at City Hall.
Instead of staying and listening to a PowerPoint presentation from employees, however, the group boarded a C-Tran bus for a four-hour tour.
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It’s important to be realistic, said City Manager Eric Holmes, and give priority to projects that will benefit the most people.
Friday’s tour started with an example of a project that might not meet that definition, the 1947 two-lane Fruit Valley Road bridge that spans the BNSF Railway tracks.
Holmes said the stop at the bridge was to show the council that seemingly simple solutions aren’t always simple.
Earlier this year, Councilor Bart Hansen and Mayor Tim Leavitt asked why tractor-trailers use two-lane West 39th Street to get from Interstate 5 to the Port of Vancouver — much to the chagrin of people who live along 39th Street — instead of four-lane Northwest 78th Street.
As the council piled off the bus, the answer was apparent. Big rigs that take 78th Street have to cross the narrow Fruit Valley Road bridge to get to the industrial areas. Aside from the fact truck drivers don’t like the 6 percent grade on the county-owned 78th Street, overweight tractor-trailers aren’t allowed on the “functionally obsolete” bridge.
A new bridge would cost at least $10 million, said Bill Whitcomb, an asset manager in the city’s public works department, adding the project would be complex because of environmental requirements triggered by Burnt Bridge Creek. For now, the bridge, which does not meet current seismic requirements, can likely last another 20 years.
So will a replacement rate high on a priority list? Doubtful, Holmes said.
The county’s elections office will remain a firearms-friendly zone.
During the most recent primary election, a certified election observer, tasked by the county Republican party with overseeing people counting votes, showed up packing a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Nobody said a word to Gerald “Rick” Halle. But later, some of the elections workers said they were uncomfortable.
Turns out, there’s nothing the county can do.
In the future, if observers show up with sidearms, a staff member will ask them to voluntarily put their firearm in a newly purchased gun safe.
If the observers don’t want to park their guns in the safe, “they will still be welcome to carry out their responsibility,” wrote Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey.
