By Jim Cline and Sarah E. Derry
In Island County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild, Arbitrator Gary Axon ordered that a Corrections Lieutenant be reinstated, but demoted to Officer. Arbitrator Axon held that the Sheriff terminated the Lieutenant without Just Cause because she was fired for not following rules that the Jail management had never implemented and that would have been impossible to follow as written.
The Jail Lieutenant was fired after an inmate died in his cell of dehydration in 2015. The Guild, represented by Cline & Casillas attorneys Jim Cline and Sarah Derry, argued that the Lieutenant was a scapegoat, and that the rule she was accused of violating (requiring her to initial when she reviewed cell logs and to ensure inmates were seen more frequently by medical personnel) was a draft policy that was never implemented. The Guild pointed out that many of the specific failures for which the Lieutenant was blamed occurred on days when she was not working. The Guild also argued that the Sheriff’s Office failed to provide the Jail with enough resources (including supervisors and medical and mental health personnel) to follow the draft policy. The Employer argued that the rules were in place and that the Grievant, as a Lieutenant, bore special responsibility that justified why she alone was singled out for discipline.
The Arbitrator agreed with the employer’s own witness who candidly characterized “the circumstances regarding management’s adoption of [the rule] …was a policy “train wreck.” He also noted that the Jail’s Chief, the Lieutenant’s supervisor, did not follow the draft rule either. Specifically, the Arbitrator noted:
“The most telling argument against the proper implementation of the policy, is that the version put out for review by corrections officers was stamped with the word “draft” three times on the cover pages. Therefore, I am compelled to hold the Employer failed to prove management provided reasonable notice of the revised safety cell rule to employees at the Island County Jail.”
The Arbitrator also found that the internal investigation, which the Sheriff relied upon when firing the Lieutenant, “can be criticized by its failure to investigate fairly and thoroughly the institutional and managerial failures of the Sheriff and Undersheriff.” The Arbitrator however determined that the Grievant was not without fault and should be demoted, but emphasized “the Employer will benefit from her 26 years of experience and knowledge in the furtherance of the successful operation of the Jail.”
For Island County Corrections personnel this was a case with no real winners. The extraordinary circumstances that left a mentally ill inmate dead clearly troubled the arbitrator.
Ultimately the arbitrator wisely recognized that the County and Sheriff’s management had numerous failures and that it was fundamentally unfair to shift all the blame upon one person.
