Thurston Co. Sheriff adds 20-person harbor patrol to team. Here’s what to know
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office will expand its presence on the South Sound following a Tuesday county commissioner vote.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted to approve an interlocal agreement with the Port of Olympia, allowing the Sheriff’s Office to acquire two vessels and absorb the port’s all-volunteer Harbor Patrol program.
The volunteers will be used as a “force multiplier” for the Sheriff’s Office’s Marine Services Unit, Sanders previously told the board. Harbor Patrol has four commanders who oversee a crew of 16, according to a port presentation. The volunteers have no law enforcement authority but have historically provided security, marine safety and emergency response services in Budd Inlet. Under the Sheriff’s Office, the volunteers will continue that mission in Budd Inlet and potentially patrol other waters across Thurston County.
“I think the Harbor Patrol group is excited, and our marine services deputies like having more resources on the water,” Sanders told the commissioners during the meeting on Tuesday.
As part of the agreement, the county will pay the port $12,075 for the 31-foot Integrity, a 2013 medical transport boat in disrepair. The port will also transfer another boat called Harbor One for free.
“The Integrity is our actual harbor boat,” Sanders said. “It’s enclosed. It allows our marine services deputies to operate in cold and harsh conditions. It’s been down for three years. The engines on it blew.”
Sanders said his office will pay for the boats and the Harbor Patrol program with his office’s boater fund. Undersheriff Ruben Mancillas described the fund as “very healthy” on March 3. The boater fund collects money from Vessel Registration Funds, which are distributed by the Washington State Parks Department, according to the county’s website.
The board delayed a vote on the new agreement until March 31 so that budget staff could look at the proposal.
Commissioners Wayne Fournier, Rachel Grant and Emily Clouse said they appreciated the details the Sheriff’s Office shared with the budget team.
“Thank you for working with the county staff to answer all the questions,” Fournier said. “I think this is a great move. This fills a big gap in public safety.”
On March 24, County Manager Leonard Hernandez told the board that the Sheriff’s Office’s water expansion should be able to contain the costs within the boater fund and not impact the county’s general fund.
“In looking at the balance that they have and the amount of years that they have to support it, (Budget and Fiscal Manager Summer Miller) and I verified that there is no real impact or threat to the general fund because they’re able to throttle or increase that level of support.”
The ending fund balance for the boater fund was about $302,000 in 2025, Mancillas told the board earlier this month. The fund receives about $65,000 a year, he added.
Mancillas said the Sheriff’s Office would seek authority from the board to spend about $174,000 from the boater fund in 2026 as part of this plan. Included in that is the cost to repair the Integrity.
“The engines are very expensive,” Sanders told the commissioners on Tuesday. “They’re more than $100,000 to repair those engines. We do have dedicated, restricted funding to pay for those engines, but we did not want to make that expenditure on a boat that we didn’t own.”
The Sheriff’s Office partnered with the port to use the Integrity when it was still in commission. The boat has remained docked at the port’s Swantown Marina and Boatworks in Olympia for several years.
