How much will Tenino pay Thurston County for Sheriff’s Office services?
The city of Tenino will pay Thurston County for Sheriff’s Office services after dissolving its local police department.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a temporary contract with the city of Tenino during a Tuesday business meeting at The Atrium.
The $112,365 contract starts retroactively on April 6 and runs through Sept. 30, but there’s also an option to extend the contract through the end of the year for $56,182 more. The Tenino City Council unanimously approved the contract and dissolved the city’s police department during a May 12 meeting. The Sheriff’s Office has been policing Tenino since April as the Tenino Police Department struggled with departures amid its budget challenges, The Olympian previously reported.
Tenino Mayor Dave Watterson proposed closing the police department earlier this year due to the city’s bleak financial outlook. The mayor estimated the move will save the city about $347,000 a year.
Sheriff Derek Sanders briefly presented the topic to the board Tuesday via Zoom. However, he spoke at length with the Tenino City Council on May 12.
“What you guys are buying this year is patrol response, whatever that includes, everything up to a full-blown SWAT call out all the way down to a traffic stop,” Sanders said. “Then you’re also buying the overtime for (events) like Oregon Trail Days.”
Sanders said he has not decided if and how he may request more full-time-equivalent positions for the Sheriff’s Office, because the new contract is only temporary.
The contract mirrors a similar contract with the city of Rainier, Sanders said.
“The two cities are so similar in call volume and size that we just wanted to keep it even-keeled,” Sanders said. “That way, no one’s complained they got the better deal or anything like that.”
Speaking generally, Sanders said his office’s services in the Tenino area “seem to be going okay” and he hasn’t heard any complaints.
“Every night that I’ve looked in, we’ve got multiple deputies working down here in this area,” Sanders said. “I think more conversations need to be had in the future, obviously, about what that long-term contract is going to look like.”
Sanders said he hopes to have a long-term contract in place by the start of next year. That should give him time to be “thoughtful” about the future of policing in Tenino, he said.
“It’s my opinion that we should do at least one more town hall once we can propose something more concrete and continue to get feedback from the residents of Tenino,” Sanders said.
As part of the new contract, the Sheriff’s Office must now provide the city of Tenino a written or verbal report every month about the law enforcement activities in Tenino for the past month.
Lt. Malcolm McIver has been tasked with providing that report. At the May 12 meeting, he said Tenino residents will get the “best service” the Sheriff’s Office can possibly provide.
“You won’t see a reduction in the services that you have,” McIver said. “I think you’ll be surprised to see that you will see an increase in those services. … It’s unfortunate, but it is just the nature of the beat. The bigger you are in this business, the more you have to provide, and it just is what it is.”
