Latest news with #KeepWashingtonWorkingAct
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pierce County Sheriff Swank to Prosecutor Robnett: ‘You are my peril'
Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank's conflicts with other elected leaders made its way to court Wednesday after an attorney acting as Swank's lawyer served three county officials a demand for mediation over issues such as his desire to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. That demand, made Friday, led the county's elected prosecutor, Mary Robnett, to seek a judgment in Superior Court prohibiting the attorney, Joan Mell, from providing legal advice to Swank or other officials. According to Robnett, only the Prosecuting Attorney's Office can act as Swank's attorney. 'Joan K. Mell has unlawfully exercised the public office of the prosecuting attorney or deputy prosecuting attorney for the County of Pierce, State of Washington,' a copy of the complaint reads. Robnett argued in part that Mell's legal advice about Swank cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could expose the county to millions of dollars in potential liability. She said it's unlawful for county officials to cooperate with ICE. The state's Keep Washington Working Act, a bipartisan law passed in 2019, limits law enforcement's ability to work with ICE. Adams County was sued by the state Attorney General's Office in March for allegedly helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. Superior Court Judge Susan Adams on Wednesday morning granted Robnett a temporary restraining order. Adams found that Mell was making legal demands on Swank's behalf and that she wasn't authorized to do so, according to a copy of the order, which expires at the next court hearing June 13. Mell, an attorney with law offices in Fircrest and Montana, was out of state at the time of the hearing. According to an email provided by Mell, she was notified of the hearing Tuesday evening via email. In a Wednesday-morning response, Mell objected to not being heard on the motion, and she said she wanted the opportunity to object to the case being litigated in front of a Pierce County judge, particularly one with ties to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. In a phone call with The News Tribune, Mell said she believed Robnett had incorrectly advised Swank and that Robnett was duty-bound as counsel to adhere to his requests, for example, challenging the Keep Washington Working Act, which Swank has called 'unconstitutional.' Mell said Robnett had failed to adhere to Swank's requests. 'Nothing she's doing is consistent with lawyering,' Mell said. 'Fundamental to lawyering is taking the direction from your client, figuring out a way to accomplish what your client wants you to accomplish and carrying out his objectives.' Swank did not respond to a phone call Wednesday afternoon. Mell said he was out of the country and unavailable until June 8. The breakdown of Swank's relationship with Robnett appeared to begin with an executive order issued by County Executive Ryan Mello earlier this month declaring that all contracts that accept federal funding would be subject to a thorough review, and that all departments and elected officials would need to designate someone to review the contracts. Swank emailed Robnett on May 13, asking if Mello had the authority to impose an executive order on him and what would happen if he didn't abide by it, according to correspondence between Swank and Robnett filed in the court record. Robnett responded the next morning that Mello had lawful authority because Swank's elected position was created by the Pierce County Charter, which makes his position an executive department subject to executive orders. Swank disagreed and said he would be seeking legal advice elsewhere. Why Swank was upset by the executive order seemed to baffle Robnett, and she cautioned him that he wasn't authorized to seek outside legal advice, saying he would be acting at his own 'peril.' 'The Executive order from yesterday did not really change anything,' Robnett wrote. 'I am a little confused about why this has struck such a nerve with you. I am an independently elected official and I am subject to the same contracting rules.' Swank explained that if Mello could impose this order on him, it meant he would be subject to other orders and that Mello could tell him how to run his office. 'As far as 'my own peril,' you are my peril,' Swank said. He told Robnett that he had asked the artificial-intelligence service ChatGPT the same question about Mello's authority over him, and it had a 'quite different response.' 'I have no faith in your counsel,' Swank wrote in the May 15 email. 'I believe that you are either incompetent or you are trying to sabotage my office.' Swank added that he believed Robnett was trying to cause him undue stress, and that it was planned because Robnett wanted his opponent in the 2024 General Election for sheriff to win over him. 'You didn't want someone to upset the apple cart,' Swank said. 'You wanted a sheriff who would go along with the program and keep everything status quo.' Robnett responded later that day, thanking Swank for spelling out his position and suggesting that they meet with Mello to discuss where each of them fit into county government under the charter. About a week after Swank's email exchange with Robnett, Mell emailed Robnett, Mello and County Council Chair Jani Hitchen a demand for mediation under RCW 36.46.010, a state law that requires elected officials to attempt to work out a dispute before a lawsuit can be brought. Mell signed the demand letter 'lawyer for Sheriff Keith Swank.' It said Swank had reached an impasse with the three officials on six issues: Sheriff's Office independence and personnel, professional recruiting, the Humane Society, independent representation and a County Council resolution affirming compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act. In regard to the independence of the Sheriff's Office and its personnel, the letter claimed Mello could not require Swank to comply with any executive orders that conflict with Swank's authority to carry out the core functions of his office. It said the County Council's power over its personnel was limited to consenting to the number of deputies and other necessary employees. 'Sheriff Swank has the authority to adequately train his deputies,' the letter reads. 'Should he deem it necessary to obtain training outside the state to do so, the Executive may not prevent the Sheriff from achieving this core function.' Of recruiting, the letter said Mello and the County Council had undermined Swank by using funds acquired by putting dollars specified to be used for recruitment by University Place in the general fund. The Sheriff's Office is contracted by University Place to provide them police services. The letter also targeted the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County's relationship with the Sheriff's Office, stating it depleted public safety dollars and was outside the purpose of the office. According to a 2018 report from the county, it contracted with the Humane Society for sheltering and licensing animals.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contract talks get ugly between Pierce County, deputies. Public safety at risk?
Contract negotiations between Pierce County and the union that represents the rank-and-file of the county's largest law enforcement agency, the Sheriff's Office, are getting ugly. Despite more than a year of bargaining, Shaun Darby, president of the Pierce County Deputy Sheriffs' Independent Guild, says they are nowhere near reaching an agreement that includes fair compensation for deputies' working conditions. The guild wants a contract that puts deputies' pay on par with other policing agencies in Pierce County to better recruit and retain deputies. Staffing levels at the Sheriff's Office haven't kept pace with the growth of the county's population, census and county data shows. Without sufficiently competitive pay to attract more law enforcement officers to work for the Sheriff's Office, Darby argues, deputies and Pierce County residents are less safe. That's not an uncommon conflict in law enforcement contract negotiations, but the tenor of talks between the guild and the county appear to be further chilling the relationship between the Sheriff's Office and the county's top elected leader, Executive Ryan Mello. Darby said the guild has specifically been dealing with Mello in bargaining and said the negotiations have been 'difficult and disrespectful.' On Monday, Sheriff Keith Swank chimed in with his support of the guild while also calling out Mello. 'Mello does not respect the men and women of the Pierce County Sheriff's Office,' Swank wrote on his X account late Monday night. 'He refuses to give them a fair contract. He thinks he can bully these warriors.' Asked to respond to Swank's statements, Mello told The News Tribune on Wednesday that the county's labor-relations team would continue to focus its efforts on the bargaining process with its labor partners at the Deputy Sheriff's Guild. 'I am disappointed that the Sheriff is making false and misleading statements about my position and bringing this collective bargaining out of the appropriate forum established by State law – which is the bargaining table,' Mello wrote in a statement to The News Tribune. 'He could not be more wrong – as I have demonstrated in numerous ways and numerous times, I am relentlessly supportive of our men and women who serve in the Sheriff's Department.' A Pierce County spokesperson, Libby Catalinich, said Tuesday that public safety is one of Mello's top priorities, and the current proposal to the guild includes significant pay increases — 10 percent over three years, according to Darby — and benefits that are competitive and sustainable. Swank recently clashed with Mello over limits to law enforcement's ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, a restriction that is enshrined through the Keep Washington Working Act, a bipartisan state law passed in 2019 that determined a person's immigration status isn't a matter for police action. Swank has called the law 'unconstitutional.' In April he traveled to Washington, D.C. — at his own expense, according to the county — with other sheriffs from across Washington to draw attention to what he sees as a conflict between state and federal law. 'I want to apologize in advance if this contract negotiation issue is going on because the executive has a personal or political issue with me,' Swank said in a video he posted Monday. 'I hope that's not the case.' In the video, Swank said he felt Mello was overstepping his authority by telling him what he can and can't do. He roped in the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, saying it, too, was mistaken 'in their interpretation of what authority the executive has.' Staffing levels at the Sheriff's Office haven't significantly increased in more than 20 years. In 2005, the office was budgeted for 228 full-time deputies among other staff, according to county budget documents. In the most recent budget, 229 deputy positions were funded. Meanwhile, the county estimates that the Sheriff's Office will need to respond to more than 200,000 calls for service in 2025, nearly double the amount the agency was getting in 2000. According to census data, the county's population has grown by more than 220,000 people since that year. 'The math is right there,' Darby said. 'We are underpaid, understaffed and overworked.' Catalinich said hiring and compensating law enforcement was very important to Mello, noting that he was in Olympia on Monday to attend Gov. Bob Ferguson signing a bill that increases state funding by $100 million for counties and cities to hire more officers. She said Mello spent a good amount of time in Olympia during the legislative session advocating for the bill. 'I have advocated fiercely for more and dedicated funding for law enforcement and the entire criminal justice system during the last state legislative session and will continue to do so and invite the Sheriff to do the same alongside me,' Mello told The News Tribune. 'I invite him to be a partner in this work and to serve the people of Pierce County together. Not to cause division where it is completely unnecessary. I will always have the back of our law enforcement officers who serve with distinction. ' The next step in contract negotiations is a June 2 vote by the membership of the Deputy Sheriffs' Independent Guild on the current proposal. The guild will have results June 7, and Darby said he's expecting an overwhelming 'no.' Darby said the guild will then file for arbitration, where a third party would look at the facts and decide what will happen. Why should Pierce County residents be concerned? '[Residents] want their money to go toward public safety, and when they call 911, they want a deputy to show up,' Darby said. He was referencing a survey of Pierce County residents conducted ahead of the county's 2024-2025 budget process. It found that 73 percent of people who completed the survey ranked public safety and crime as the top priority for the budget, ahead of transportation and roads, homeless and housing. Residents' desire to prioritize putting public dollars toward public safety is reflected in the county's most recent budget, which allocated more than $226 million to the Sheriff's Office's law enforcement work, a nearly 11 percent increase over the previous biennium and representing about a quarter of the county's $896 million budget. A supplemental budget approved in December included an additional $2.6 million for employment incentives for commissioned law enforcement officers and corrections officers. Darby pointed to the Sheriff's Office's delayed response to a noise complaint earlier this year that preceded a shooting outside a house party in the Spanaway area as one potential consequence of not having enough deputies to respond to calls. A noise complaint about the party was called in about 90 minutes before the shooting, but deputies in the area were responding to higher-priority calls and eventually arrived seconds before gunshots were fired. Two people were killed in the shooting, and four others were injured. The deputies' guild claims Pierce County has the money to approve bigger wage increases but is holding out on them. An analysis of the county's current and future financial outlook commissioned by the guild found that the county's general fund revenues exceeded expenditures in four of the five most recent years, resulting in an annual operating surplus that was $14.8 million in fiscal year 2023. It also found the county had the highest possible credit rating from Moody's, a major credit rating agency. 'The county is, they're flush with money,' Darby said. 'They have a lot of money, and they have a very good financial outlook. If they simply could prove that they didn't have the money then I would listen to them, but we've just proven the argument.' In response to questions from The News Tribune, a Pierce County spokesperson pointed out that the guild has received wage increases during previous rounds of negotiations, totaling a nearly 19 percent wage increase since 2022. The county also said it was important to clarify that compensation comparisons to smaller cities such as Bonney Lake and Gig Harbor don't accurately reflect the operational scale, staffing demands or financial realities of a countywide sheriff's office. Darby said the county is saying deputies are being paid just fine when compared to sheriff's offices in Spokane, Snohomish and Skagit counties, as well as some sheriff's offices in Florida. But he argues that if you disregard the city and county divide and instead look at demographics, crime stats and staffing, the Sheriff's Office is a mirror image of the Tacoma Police Department, with the exception of the much larger area the Sheriff's Office is responsible for. An entry-level deputy starting at the Sheriff's Office in 2024 would receive net hourly pay of $59.45, according to the guild. In Tacoma, the same entry-level candidate would be getting $69.80. The Tacoma police union's collective bargaining agreement with the city, which covers 2024 to 2026, included a 13.5 percent base wage rate increase over the first two years and an additional raise in 2026 based on a market calculation. 'There is no reason to work for the Pierce County Sheriff's Office on the south side of 96th Street when you can make 30 percent more and have twice as many officers there to help you when you're working on the north side of 96th Street, which is the Tacoma Police Department's jurisdiction,' Darby said.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pierce County exec, sheriff at odds over working with immigration authorities
A Pierce County Council resolution to be voted on Tuesday affirming the county's position on limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities reveals a brewing feud between the Democratic-majority council and the county's conservative sheriff. The resolution would commit the county to fully complying with the Keep Washington Working Act, a bipartisan state law passed in 2019 that determined a person's immigration status isn't a matter for police action. The law was intended to give immigrants and refugees confidence that going to work or calling police for help in an emergency wouldn't land them in the custody of federal immigration enforcement. The council's resolution also expresses support for a directive from County Executive Ryan Mello describing how county departments should interact with federal immigration officials. 'Residents must feel confident they can safely seek county services and assistance from all county departments,' Mello wrote in the directive. Issued in March, the directive instructs county employees not to interfere with federal investigations but also to request to see a warrant if a federal official asks to inspect a non-public area of a county building. It asks employees to report interactions with federal law enforcement officers to a department representative. Sheriff Keith Swank has said he thinks the Keep Washington Working Act is not constitutional, and, in a phone call with The News Tribune, he described feeling caught between federal directives to enforce immigration detainers and state law that forbids it. An immigration detainer is a request from federal immigration authorities to keep a person detained so federal authorities can take custody of them. Since Swank began his term as sheriff on Jan. 1, he said, the Sheriff's Office hasn't received any detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said the office had arrested a person for a violent crime this year who Swank said is an 'illegal alien.' Earlier this month, Swank traveled to Washington, D.C., with other sheriffs from across Washington, including Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner, who is in a legal battle with state Attorney General Nick Brown over allegedly helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. Swank said he went to Washington, D.C., to give moral support to Wagner and to bring what he sees as a conflict between state and federal law to the attention of the federal government. While in the capital, Swank and the other sheriffs met with representatives from the Department of Justice, including a brief meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi. 'We need to get this resolved, and ultimately … my whole purpose of going there and still doing this stuff is to bring attention to the matter because I want to have it in front of the U.S. Supreme Court so they can rule once and for all what's what,' Swank said. An equity note on the County Council's proposed resolution states that its intended to ensure all residents feel confident in their ability to seek county services and assistance without fear, noting that recent executive orders from President Donald Trump sow fear and concern among immigrants and refugees that they'll be targeted by federal law enforcement. Bernal Baca is executive director of Mi Centro, a decades-old nonprofit in Tacoma that provides services to the Latino community. Baca provided a public comment on the resolution, calling it a 'crucial step' from the local government to ensure residents don't have to worry about being tricked when they renew their driver's license, show up for an appointment or other activities to live normal lives. 'Much of what President Trump has stated about his intentions is concerning, but what the administration has done so far to subvert due process and intimidate honest, hardworking, and god-fearing Americans is deplorable,' Baca said. Swank doesn't agree with the argument that limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities has the effect state law claims it does. He called it a fallacy. 'If people are in America legally, they have nothing to worry about calling 911,' Swank said. 'If they're here illegally and they call 911 because they're a victim of a crime, we're not going to be running their name to see if we can deport them. That doesn't happen.' 'We'll have our hands full in the meantime with violent criminals, citizens and noncitizens,' Swank added. The County Council's resolution affirms that county property, personnel, funds and equipment can't be used to support federal immigration enforcement activities unless legally required. Swank described the resolution as a 'broad overreach,' saying he doesn't think the County Council has the authority to impose those restrictions on his office. He also is displeased with the council for not asking for his input on the resolution. 'They do the budget, but they don't have control over how I run the Sheriff's Office,' Swank said. 'But I believe many people think that they should have that control or that they do. So that's kind of a little bit of the rub right there, too.'
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Washington AG's lawsuit about politics, local sheriff says
(NewsNation) — A rural county sheriff who is being sued by Washington state's Democratic attorney general for reportedly violating the state's sanctuary law says the issue at hand is politics and not about his ability to maintain law and order. Dale Wagner, the sheriff in Adams County, was sued by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown in March. In the suit, Brown alleges Wagner broke the law when he went against the Keep Washington Working Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from assisting ICE with federal immigration enforcement. Wagner told NewsNation on Friday that he is upholding the laws of the state that pertain to situations law enforcement deals with in local communities. He said Brown's lawsuit has nothing to do with the job he's doing. Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein accuser, dies by suicide: Report 'I think it's politics,' Wagner said. 'We're dealing with a political situation … and this is going on nationwide. Wherever the immigration topic comes up, we are part of it. Everybody's part of it right now. We have left and right fighting over territories.' Wagner said Adams County deputies are not assisting ICE agents in the field in apprehending migrants who entered the country illegally. But he acknowledged that his department is part of an information-sharing agreement based on a contract it has with the federal government. That agreement is, Wagner said, what has Brown upset. Washington's attorney general told The New York Times that his lawsuit was filed to ensure that sheriffs comply with the state's laws. 'Right now, we have federal immigration officials who are, in my view, essentially kidnapping people off the streets without due process,' Brown said. 'And I don't want, nor does most Washington law enforcement want, to be involved in the sort of draconian actions that we're seeing all across the country.' Adams County is a conservative area of the state with a largely Hispanic population, the sheriff told NewsNation. He said that because the country's demographics resemble those of communities along the U.S. southern border, politics are entering the equation. He said that Adams County 'fits the bill, it has become a target. 'Our crimes are getting worse, and things are getting bad,' Wagner said. 'It doesn't necessarily mean that they're all illegal aliens that are doing it, but the reality is, this is the topic of the country right now: immigration.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration blasts Washington over immigration enforcement lawsuit
A sign on a Department of Justice building in downtown Washington D.C. (Stock photo by Douglas Rissing via Getty Images) The Trump administration has lambasted the Washington attorney general's lawsuit against a county for cooperating with federal immigration agents in violation of state law. The latest development, based on a court filing from the U.S. Department of Justice last week, marks another escalation of tensions between the state and feds over immigration. President Donald Trump's Justice Department is asking a judge to side with Adams County as it faces litigation from Attorney General Nick Brown over the state's 'sanctuary' policy known as the Keep Washington Working Act. 'Washington asserts KWW is lawful, because it does not 'impede' federal officials from accomplishing their work,' DOJ senior litigation counsel J. Max Weintraub wrote. 'But that is exactly what KWW was designed to do. And it has accomplished that end — actively facilitating aliens' evasion of federal law in Washington.' Weintraub argues that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, enacted by Congress, preempts the Keep Washington Working Act. And he points to the Constitution's supremacy clause that holds federal statutes 'shall be the supreme Law of the Land.' 'KWW contravenes the Supremacy Clause for a host of independent reasons, and virtually at every turn,' Weintraub wrote. Brown's lawsuit against Adams County has also received a stiff rebuke from Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Michael Baumgartner, whose eastern Washington district includes part of the county. In a letter, Baumgartner and two other Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote the state 'not only actively thwarts federal immigration enforcement, but it also targets local law enforcement officials for complying with federal law.' Brown defended the law in a sharply-worded response last week and questioned why his lawsuit was getting such national attention. Passed in 2019, the Keep Washington Working Act makes the state a so-called 'sanctuary' for immigrants without legal status. President Donald Trump has floated punishing such cities and states, including through withheld federal funding. On Thursday, a federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from taking that kind of recourse over immigration enforcement. Seattle, which has a sanctuary policy of its own, is one of more than a dozen local governments that brought the case. The state law mostly stops local police from helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. For example, police can't provide nonpublic personal information to federal authorities investigating civil immigration cases, and can't interview or detain people solely based on questions about their immigration status. Police also aren't allowed to ask about their immigration status, except in rare cases. In his lawsuit last month, Brown alleged the Adams County Sheriff's Office flouted the law for years. He says deputies unlawfully jailed people based solely on immigration status, enabled federal immigration agents to question those in custody and shared confidential personal information of Washingtonians with federal officials. In court filings, the county denied the state's allegations, with arguments about the Keep Washington Working Act that mirror the DOJ. In a Friday statement, Brown said the DOJ and Adams County employ 'the same factually and legally incorrect arguments.' 'There is no conflict between Keep Washington Working and federal law, and we look forward to continuing to present our case in court,' the attorney general continued. The complaint, initially filed in state court in Spokane County, has been moved to federal court. The attorney general is looking to move it back to state court because the case is focused on allegations regarding state law, not federal. Adams County, home to around 20,000 people in southeast Washington, has retained lawyers from a firm founded by top Trump aide and immigration hawk Stephen Miller.
