Benton County sheriff showed favoritism with ‘secret promotion process,’ union says

When Benton County Undersheriff John Clary was named the department’s second-in-command, the move followed a one-day promotion from corporal to patrol sergeant.

That gave the assurance that, if Sheriff Jerry Hatcher is voted out of office under the current recall effort, Clary will have the higher rank and pay grade of a sergeant to fall back to.

He also was promoted without the usual requirement of being on probation for a year, according to documents obtained by the Tri-City Herald.

The Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild claims Hatcher showed favoritism in the secret promotion process, which ultimately saw Clary skip over six other sergeants and advance past five other command supervisors to become undersheriff.

It’s just another example of the embattled sheriff’s disregard of department and county policies and long-standing agency practices, says the sheriff’s deputies union.

The union has filed a grievance against the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and Hatcher, accusing him of failing to alert several qualified officers about the open position. The undersheriff job has been vacant three years since Hatcher became sheriff.

The sheriff also violated the agency’s policies manual, union agreements and a state law that dictates how vacancies are filled in classified service, according to the grievance.

It is calling for Clary’s one-day sergeant promotion to be thrown out so records reflect that he was promoted from the rank of corporal directly to undersheriff.

He made about $87,400 without overtime as a corporal in 2018. The undersheriff position salary is $137,300, which is about $8,400 more than the sheriff’s pay, show county records.

Benton County commissioners were notified recently about the grievance. The union also warned it is considering a lawsuit over an alleged open meetings violation involving the Benton County Civil Service Commission.

Sheriff dismisses grievance

Hatcher, in a response to the union, said he found that the grievance is “without merit and summarily denied.”

“As all are aware, the (sheriff’s office) employee who previously held the now challenged position of sergeant in the (sheriff’s office) no longer holds this position,” he wrote. “The grievance seeks redress of an alleged process for which no remedy exists, and also is untimely.”

The sheriff said the grievance mischaracterizes his interaction with the civil service commission on the promotion, including allegations that any part of it was done in secret.

He said he was in full compliance with the union contract and was “within (his) rights” to appoint Clary to the sergeant’s position.

Hatcher did not meet with union officials to discuss the dispute, which is allowed and encouraged in the process, before he denied the grievance.

County commission

So Sept. 7, union lawyer Alan Harvey took the next step and told the Benton County Commission of the unresolved grievance.

His letter says the board can meet with the sheriff and/or the guild and conduct further investigation, but must respond within 20 days.

On Tuesday, commissioners held a closed-door executive session for about 20 minutes and later in open session approved signing “the letter in response to the sheriff deputies guild regarding a grievance.”

What that letter says is not known. The Herald requested a copy of the letter Tuesday from the county, was referred to the county’s lawyers in the prosecutor’s office and has not yet received a response.

The next step in the grievance process is arbitration.

Recall petition

Clary’s two promotions came just days before a recall petition was filed by another sheriff’s office employee, Sgt. Jason Erickson.

In the petition — which is on appeal to the Washington state Supreme Court — Erickson accuses Hatcher of criminal misconduct, tampering with physical evidence, discrimination, intimidation and retaliation within the sheriff’s office.

Erickson is backed by nearly the entire membership of the Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild.

Hatcher, who has been sheriff since May 2017, has denied the allegations and says it is organized labor’s attempt to take over his office and diminish accountability.

He previously told the Herald in June that he made the mistake years ago of not filling his undersheriff position.

‘Secret’ promotion

Documents dated July 13 shows Hatcher promoted Clary from corporal to patrol sergeant.

Then on July 14, Clary was promoted to undersheriff, according to a separate “personnel action form.” The document shows the second-in-command post is not a union position.

Hatcher wrote a July 13 letter to the Benton County Civil Service Commission explaining that it was “a pressing matter” and that he was going to select Clary effective immediately.

Clary ranked No. 1 on the current “certified eligibility list for the rank of Sergeant,” said Hatcher, who further explained that he was going to waive the 12-month probationary period that typically applies to a promotion. He said doing that allows the office “to progress in areas we are currently lacking.”

The sheriff cited a state law that gives him “a greater degree of choice in filling positions” and a past practice of probationary periods being waived in limited circumstances.

He further noted that Clary previously did 12 months of probation at the deputy level and another 12 months when promoted to corporal, and overall has been in law enforcement in Washington state for 27 years.

Clary’s experience includes patrol, investigations, K9 office, SWAT team and supervision.

“I plan to appoint John as the Undersheriff. Due to the current needs of the agency, (due) to the agency’s emergent needs, I cannot wait 12 months to make this appointment,” Hatcher wrote. “As an appointed, unclassified position, John will be serving in a de facto probationary status daily.”

Hatcher said he had hoped to discuss his plans with the Civil Service Commission in person, but the board’s June and July meetings were canceled because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“After consulting with our Civil Service Examiner and county legal advisor Stephen Hallstrom, we all believe this is appropriate and justified under the circumstances the sheriff’s office is currently facing,” said Hatcher.

He announced Clary’s promotion in a July 16 post on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page. He said it was effective July 14.

At the same time, Hatcher said he also had promoted Jon Schwarder to lieutenant on July 13.

The lieutenant position previously was held by Erickson, who demoted himself Feb. 14 because he was appalled by Hatcher’s alleged actions both in the office and in his personal life and didn’t want to be one of his top commanders.

Harvey, the guild’s Vancouver attorney, wrote in the grievance that Clary’s one-day promotion “appears to have been done primarily in secret.”

He said union members did not learn of Clary’s brief sergeant promotion until early August. Typically, management would have made an announcement and notified the union of the supervisory move, he said.

Harvey also accused Hatcher of meeting with Hallstrom, who is a Benton County deputy prosecutor, and both the outgoing and incoming Civil Service chief examiners before the promotion was made.

He said that meeting appears to have been in violation of the state’s Open Public Meetings Act since there was no prior notification of a public meeting or any Civil Service Commission notice.

Civil Service commissioners, appointed by county commissioners, serve in the volunteer role to “establish a merit system of employment for (sheriff’s employees), thereby raising the standards of such offices and law enforcement in general.”

Under the sheriff office’s policies manual and per the agency’s long-standing practices, the top three eligible, prospective candidates on the most recent testing list usually are notified about a promotion opportunity and the process that will follow to fill the position. That did not happen before Clary was moved from corporal to sergeant, Harvey said.

He said for at least the past decade, the normal steps have applied with Civil Service involvement during the promotional process.

But in this case, those past practices, the department policies and the union’s contract all were ignored or changed to allow this one-day promotion to occur with plans to ultimately move Clary to undersheriff, according to the grievance.

This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.