Community Government Police & Fire

Charter Review Commission considering proposal to make sheriff appointed (again)

Pierce County voters elected the sheriff from the county’s founding in 1852 until 1980. That’s when a new Home Rule Charter — passed in the wake of a scandal involving the elected sheriff — made the post appointed.

In 2006, voters approved a charter amendment that made the sheriff elected again.

Now, some members of the Pierce County Charter Review Commission propose switching one more time. An amendment introduced by Jake Hunter, a Charter Review commissioner from Tacoma, would empower the county executive to appoint the county’s top law enforcement officer. 

Predictably, incumbent Sheriff Keith Swank thinks it’s a terrible idea.

“This move is purely political,” Swank said at a Charter Review Commission meeting on Monday, March 9. “Because my opponents could not beat me at the ballot box. So they want to cancel me. How very undemocratic.”

As a matter of fact, the process will be entirely democratic.

The Charter Review Commission has no power to change the county’s governing document on its own. If the panel moves forward with the appointed sheriff proposal — which is no certainty — Pierce County voters would have the final say in November.

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank speaks to the Pierce County Charter Review Commission on Monday, March 9.

Legislation

Meanwhile, the Legislature recently approved a bill that would require heightened eligibility standards for police chiefs and sheriffs — even elected sheriffs.

The legislation would require chiefs and sheriffs to have at least five years of full-time law enforcement experience; no felony or gross misdemeanor convictions; and to obtain state certification within nine months of taking office.

The legislation would allow for removal from office of sheriffs who don’t meet the standard.

Both houses of the Legislature approved the bill, which awaits Gov. Bob Ferguson’s signature. The Washington State Sheriff’s Association this week urged Ferguson to veto portions of the bill, according to the Washington State Standard.

Sheriffs past and present

Pierce County is in the midst of its once-every-10-years charter review process. The 21-member Charter Review Commission, whom voters elected last fall, will propose amendments to go on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The charter is the county equivalent of the U.S. or state Constitution. Pierce County adopted its charter in 1980, not long after a federal jury found Sheriff George Janovich guilty of racketeering in a scandal involving the Carbone crime family of Tacoma.

Janovich, of Gig Harbor, served six years in prison. His tenure was just one chapter in Pierce County’s complicated history with elected sheriffs.

More recently, Pierce County in 2023 settled a lawsuit brought by a newspaper deliveryman after former sheriff Ed Troyer called 911 to report him in 2021. The settlement cost the county $500,000. A jury found Troyer not guilty of two misdemeanor charges related to the same incident.

Currently, the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission is investigating at least nine cases against Swank. Those cases are the result of numerous complaints about his social media commentary and handling of public records.

Charter Review

The charter that voters adopted in 1980 calls for election of a 21-person Charter Review Commission every 10 years. The commission consists of three members from each of seven Pierce County Council districts.

Council District 7, which comprises the peninsulas and North Tacoma, picked Martha Lantz, Brenda Lykins and Justin Leighton for the Charter Review Commission.

Those three hosted a “listening session” in Lakebay on Saturday, March 7. The handful of people who attended mostly wanted to ask about repealing a public safety sales tax enacted in February by the Pierce County Council.

Such a move is not in the review commission’s purview. However, voters could repeal the tax via referendum — a power enumerated in the charter.

Other proposed charter amendments

The commission has met weekly since mid-January. It has already produced a dozen proposals, dealing with intergovernmental cooperation, vacancies in office, council member residency requirements, the supermajority requirement for council-approved tax increases and other matters.

Pierce County residents have proposed an additional three amendments, on electing the Superior Court clerk, the size of the county council and one requiring proof of citizenship for voting. Residents can submit an amendment proposal here.

The commission set April 13 as the deadline for new amendment proposals. Since the charter defines the commission’s “term of office” as only six months, the panel must wrap up deliberations by the end of June.

Not all proposals will go before voters. Eleven of the 21 commissioners must support an amendment to place it on the ballot.

Leighton said commissioners want to avoid “voter fatigue,” in which voters become overwhelmed by too many proposed amendments and ignore some of them. District 7 commissioners reckoned that the panel will propose no more than six amendments.

District 7 representatives to the Pierce County Charter Review Commission — from left, Brenda Lykins, Justin Leighton and Martha Lantz — talk about the process at a “listening session” on March 7 in Lakebay. Photo by Vince Dice

Swank defends his role

The question of whether to appoint or elect the sheriff is the highest-profile proposal to emerge from the Charter Review Commission so far. More people have commented on it than any other proposed amendment. (Click here to submit a comment.)

“I’ve heard a lot about the sheriff,” Leighton said at the listening session. “Whether you agree or disagree that it should be elected, I think it’s time for the voters to decide.”

In his March 9 comments to the commission, Swank argued that voters already have decided. In 2006, nearly two-thirds of Pierce County voters supported making the sheriff elected again. 

Swank said the commission proposal is strictly about him, not about the best way to choose a chief law enforcement officer. 

“The only thing that’s going wrong with Keith Swank is, people don’t like what I say,” he said. “But I’m here to support your First Amendment rights, your Second Amendment rights, all the rights that are given to you. I expect the same thing, to be able to exercise my rights as well.”  

Swank told the commission that an independently elected sheriff is key to avoiding “the corruption and control that one-party systems bring.” He also suggested that the commission should consider holding “all politicians accountable” by requiring background checks, polygraphs and psychological testing for anyone seeking office — “all the things that police officers are subjected to.” 

“If the body here decides that they want to put forward to the people of Pierce County, appointed or elected, that’s the way the process works,” Swank said. “We’re spending a lot of time talking about sheriff because people don’t like me. I won’t be the sheriff forever.”