County Executive Aaron Reardon and his deputy executive illegally delayed efforts to settle a contract with Superior Court clerks and retaliated against them for forming their own guild, a state examiner ruled Monday.
The ruling ends a two-year contract impasse by granting arbitration rights to the Snohomish County Clerks’ Association.
In 2005, the guild’s roughly 70 members split from the county’s larger union, AFSCME – American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – and has been mired in negotiations over pay and benefits ever since.
In that time, “the employer deliberately delayed, frustrated and avoided agreement” with the association, wrote Starr Knutson, examiner for the Public Employment Relations Commission.
“Based on the evidence and testimony presented, I conclude the employer was merely going through the motions without actually seeking to adjust its differences with the SCCA.”
Reardon’s office received the ruling Monday.
“We’re taking a look at it with our lawyers and we’ll go from there,” said Veltry Johnson, Reardon’s spokesman.
Representatives for the clerks’ association could not be reached Monday.
The county has 20 days to request arbitration from the state. The ruling also forces the county to publicly post notices that detail the labor negotiation violations.
The clerks’ association filed a complaint with the state employment commission in 2006, arguing that the county engaged in a raft of unfair labor practices.
State law doesn’t compel an employer to agree to any proposal, but it does require the employer to “come to negotiations with an open mind that is receptive to reaching accord with the union,” Knutson said of Snohomish County. “It did not.”
Reardon also broke state law when at a Silvertips hockey game he made disparaging remarks about the attorney representing the Snohomish County Clerks’ Association, Knutson said.
Deputy executive Mark Soine illegally delayed bargaining by angrily canceling a meeting with the clerks in March 2006, Knutson said.
Soine told Knutson he canceled a mediation session because he was angry about an article in The Herald about rising medical premiums for the clerks.
“Soine testified he was only angry; however, I do not find that testimony credible,” Knutson said. “Soine still appeared ‘angry’ at the hearing months after the newspaper article.
“In canceling a mediation session due simply because he was angry over a newspaper article, Soine over-reacted. The employer decided to engage in hard bargaining, which while legal, tends to incite hard bargaining by the other party,” she wrote.
“Soine and Reardon were public officials and as such should be hardened to reading about their actions in the local newspaper. In canceling this meeting the employer provided an additional example of its intention to delay and frustrate bargaining.”
The county capped medical costs for AFSCME and nonunion employees in 2005, but not for the clerks’ association, Knutson said.
Altogether, the county has about 3,000 union and nonunion employees.
“By capping medical costs for the county’s large AFSCME union and nonrepresented employees but not the clerks was clear retaliation,” she said.
“The overwhelming evidence shows this employer retaliated against these employees for exercising their rights. The top employer officials, either Reardon or Soine, appeared to have their own reasons for refusing to agree to similar medical premiums for this bargaining unit.”
Doing so “may have a chilling effect on other employees who may desire a representative of their choice. I believe the employer intended to favor AFSCME over the newly formed association.”
At a Silvertips hockey game in Everett, Reardon made disparaging remarks about the clerks’ attorney, Knutson wrote in her ruling.
Clerks’ association member Kendra Mooney felt threatened, and “credibly testified Reardon told her as long as SCCA kept threatening the county they would not get anywhere,” Knutson wrote.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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