50
¢
Thursday, February 21, 2013
VOL. 18, NO. 29
Staffing woes
Justin Burnett photo
Coupeville Deputy Marshal Hodges Gowdey sits in his patrol car off North Main Street. Staffing problems have struck the tiny office hard and the Town Council is considering several options to address the problem, including outsourcing law enforcement to another agency.
Town looks at outsourcing police, other options By Justin Burnett Staff reporter
Under one of several options being considered by the Coupeville Town Council to address staffing woes in the Marshal’s Office, law enforcement services may be contracted out to a neighboring agency. Last week, the council unanimously approved a not-to-exceed $10,000 contract with Snohomish County Undersheriff Tom Davis for consulting services at their regular Tuesday meeting. Davis has a private consulting firm and will investigate the viability of outsourcing law enforcement services to the Island County Sheriff’s Office, the Oak Harbor Police Department or both. Specifically, he is to identify service options, negotiate potential costs with the neighboring agencies and then help town officials evaluate whether this is the best option.
The two other solutions under consideration include: reorganizing the marshal’s office within the existing budget — the number of officers would be reduced from five to four and funding from the dissolved position reallocated to the remaining officers — and increasing pay and benefits through a yet-tobe-determined tax increase. Both of those options are being looked at by Mayor Nancy Conard and Marshal Lance Davenport. In an interview this week, Councilman and Mayor Pro-tem Bob Clay said nothing is decided, but contracting out law enforcement services, and the possibility of dissolving the marshal’s office altogether, is a consideration. “It’s really hard for a town our size to provide services like we used to,” said Clay, referring to long-gone Coupeville agencies, such as the town fire department and library. “We’re just trying to look for a better way to spend the taxpayers money and get the services we need,” Clay said.
According to Conard, it’s way too soon to make any conclusions about the fate of the Marshal’s Office. If it was decided to contract out services, and the other options discarded, that may be accomplished in a variety of ways. “It’s the natural thing to assume there would be no marshal’s office, but I’m not sure that’s true,” Conard said. “It may be one option of many.”
Department of two Last fall, the marshal’s office lost 75 percent of its work force when three officers left the tiny department. Two took better paying
jobs elsewhere and another left for personal reasons. Deputy Marshal Hodges Gowdey, a department veteran of nearly 13 years, and Davenport are all that remain. With just two officers left, town officials employed a temporary stop-gap of hiring reserve officers from Oak Harbor and the sheriff’s office to maintain 24-hour response in Coupeville. During Tuesday’s council meeting, Conard said she believed the town’s temporary See Marshal, page 8