Spokane City Council unanimously approves four-year police contract, eyes asking voters for tax increase

Emry Dinman, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
·4 min read

Jun. 29—The Spokane City Council has unanimously approved a four-year contract with the Spokane Police Guild that includes significant pay increases each year, enhanced benefits, and limited expansion of the powers of the police ombudsman.

Detective Dave Dunkin, president of the union that represents officers and sergeants, spoke in support of the contract at a Thursday special session of the City Council, praising council members' willingness to provide additional funding for officers amid budget concerns.

"I've tried hard over the last year to change the narrative that council doesn't support its police, because that's just not true," Dunkin said. "Getting us into contract in what historically now is going to be a record time is credit to the city saying it supports its police."

The contract includes a 5% pay increase for 2023 retroactively applied to the beginning of the year, a 7% increase in 2024, another 7% increase in 2025 and anywhere from a 3.5-7% increase in 2026, pegged to the consumer price index for the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma area. It wasn't clear why that metropolitan area was chosen over Spokane.

The City Council considered delaying the vote to approve the contract, Council President Breean Beggs said Wednesday evening, due to broad concerns about the city's fiscal sustainability. The Council's budget director, Matt Boston, has repeatedly noted that the city's revenue historically increases at around 3% each year, and many union contracts approved by the city in recent years have included raises in excess of 3%, not including other compensation package increases.

"If compensation is outpacing revenue growth, that spread just widens and widens and widens," Boston said Thursday. "You can't go down this road forever."

Beggs noted shortly before the contract was approved that the city would need to ask voters for additional tax revenue in order to avoid fiscal collapse.

"Our understanding is that it's going to be very challenging," Beggs said. "We're probably going to need to ask voters to vote with their pocketbooks for the entire city operation to provide the operations they expect and want."

In a text after the vote, Beggs clarified that there were no concrete details yet on what that measure would look like, but said it would likely entail a property tax levy.

He noted that the council would have to vote in July to place a measure on the November ballot asking voters to approve additional taxes.

Beyond salary increases, the contract substantially bolsters officer benefits. Floating holidays were increased by 50%, and overtime during major events such as Bloomsday, Hoopfest and the Lilac parades was increased from time-and-a-half to double pay, among other benefits.

Wage incentives were increased for major crime detectives and officers with college degrees, while a new wage incentive was created for bilingual officers. Pay increases and vacation accrual based on years of service now includes tenure at a different law enforcement agency certified by Washington state, in the hopes of encouraging lateral hires. Life insurance policies for members of the bomb squad, SWAT team, K9 handlers and hostage negotiators was increased, and limits were removed on how much banked sick leave could be used for maternity or paternity leave.

In all, Dunkin said the provisions of the new contract should help the department with recruiting and retaining officers.

"We're really hurting," he said. "We're in the middle of a staffing crisis that I think is much worse than people know. Things are rough; this gives us some hope."

During a June 22 study session, Assistant Police Chief Justin Lundgren stated that the department's ballooning overtime spending was primarily due to insufficient staffing.

The independent oversight authority of the Office of the Police Ombudsman was increased in some capacities as well. Employees of the office can file complaints for which they have first-hand knowledge, though the complainant is not able to participate in the investigation or other actions related to the complaint. The office is now able to investigate complaints of serious misconduct that could result in termination that occurred up to five years ago, up from one year.

The contract still prevents the office from naming officers in their reports or determining whether a law or policy was violated by guild members. The ombudsman is not allowed to recommend discipline, and the contract stipulates that no discipline of guild members can occur as a result of an independent investigation by the office.