Change in police employment standards must go through negotiation | Letter

Published 6:30 am Monday, August 29, 2016

Having been a police association president and negotiated police contracts for over 20 years, I was very interested in the two opinion letters dealing with the education standard required for Kirkland police officers. No matter how Chief Harris wants to label the change, it is a change in employment standards, thus a change in working conditions, and must go through the negotiation process. Good luck trying to convince an arbitrator otherwise. I do believe it is a loosing argument from the get go.

For a police labor association to resort to letters to the editor tells me that the management, labor relations process within the police department has completely broken down due to a forced change without the process of negotiations between the two bodies.

Larry Conrad, Kirkland