Council discusses new sheriff contract, hears update on parking kiosks

CORRECTION: The City of Chelan did not sign a new contract with the Chelan County Sheriff office as stated below. It was only a discussion. The City does, however, have to sign a new contract by the end of this year.

CHELAN - Good news. The Chelan City Council signed a new Sheriff Contract with the Chelan County Sheriff office at a special council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Council signed a two year agreement that runs through 2018 but wanted to clarify a few things with the Sheriff office.

“What I’ve heard is that we don’t have any shifts or changes, we’re happy with enforcement we are receiving, but it’s a chance to strengthen the contract and touch on some of the items we have talked about,” Chelan City Administrator Mike Jackson said.

One was getting a roster of officers on duty in Chelan.

“That may be all we can get, but (at least we can) get an idea of who is assigned to the city,” Jackson suggested. “I think a better understanding of a firm duty roster and times they go back and forth. Something that shows a breakdown of who are the regular people, so we have a good understanding of who is serving the city, not that we’re challenging them.”

Another thing Jackson brought up was the price of the contract. Since it was a 4 percent increase, council will look to escalate the lease on the Sheriff office on Johnson Ave.

“We have never changed the lease amount for the police department, maybe we could tie that to his escalator as well,” Councilman Ray Dobbs stated.

In case a new supervisor takes over for Sergeant Rob Huddleston, council would like to at least be in the conversation of potential candidates.

“If there is a change potentially the sheriff could propose a couple candidates and give the city an opportunity to discuss... I think it’s nice to know who is coming on,” Jackson pressed to council.

“They have always had a good supervisor, the first guy we got was great, and then we got Rob, and he is a great guy too,” Chelan Councilman Guy Harper said. “All of his people that are at that level are top notch and if he said it was the right guy, I trust him.”

Chelan Councilman Servando Robledo agreed both sentiments but advised including some language to be in the discussion because although the relationship is great now, “maybe it’s the best time to include language now as opposed to when something happens (down the road).”

After council signed the agreement, they moved onto a director report from Parks Director Karen Sargeant.

Sargeant outlined some of the projects that have been completed and gave an update on the parking kiosks, which have been in use since April.

“The table down below shows the amount of revenue we have collected,” Sargeant said, pointing to a handout that showed $94,838 in four months. “The number of tickets sold, which are the receipts are 18,651.”

Pretty good for a total cost of $30,000 for all four kiosks.

“We still don’t have August (either), Sargeant affirmed. “The monthly service fee is less than we were paying the other guy, and the parking enforcement are spending a lot of time giving courtesy notices. We’re not out to get people, it’s an educational moment… One thing I want council to think about is rolling some of the money back into specific park areas. We can break (the money) out by park and it would make it a little more palatable, especially at Lakeside.”

Councilman Dobbs suggested using some of the money to take out the retaining wall 20 feet on the lake side and create more parking.

“It would benefit two directions,” Dobbs said, “It would increase numbers by 30 percent and that would be doable.”

Public Works Director Dwayne Van Epps said that it was looked into before but since there was no kiosks at the time there was no source to go after more parking.

“Let’s pull that up and dust it off,” Jackson settled.