In one of the first moves to pass policing reforms in the 2021 legislative session, the House approved a Senate bill that changes the way workplace discipline arbitrations for law enforcement are conducted statewide. The bill now goes to Governor Inslee’s desk to be signed into law.

As we’ve written previously, SB 5055 establishes a roster of specialized police grievance arbitrators at the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) to hear disciplinary grievances for police officers. Under the bill, all arbitrations disputing police discipline, discharges, or terminations will be required to be heard by one of PERC’s specialized arbitrators. The specialized arbitrators are appointed to the roster for three years and can be re-appointed by PERC. PERC can also remove arbitrators from the roster by majority vote. The bill requires PERC law enforcement arbitration decisions to be published and available to the public.

The aim of the bill is to avoid the problem of privately retained arbitrators “splitting the difference” during disciplinary disputes that often overturn a city police department’s disciplinary decision on officer misconduct. In the current system, if a police department disciplines an officer for misconduct and the officer disputes the discipline, the case must go to a private arbitrator that is agreed upon by both the city and the officer’s union. This gives the arbitrator an incentive to give both parties a “win” in the decision (sometimes reducing discipline that is otherwise warranted) so that the arbitrator will be retained by both the city and union in the future, instead of simply deciding the case on the facts.

SB 5055 eliminates the problem in the most serious disciplinary cases by requiring a dispute to go to PERC’s new roster of neutral law enforcement arbitrators. Cases are automatically assigned to the next arbitrator on PERC’s rotating roster. Since arbitrators know they will still be assigned future cases no matter which party prevails, they can simply decide a case on the facts instead of worrying about being retained in future cases.

AWC supported SB 5055 as part of its larger police reform agenda. The bill passed the House on March 24 on a bipartisan 60-38 vote. The Senate passed the bill earlier in February on a 41-8 vote. Given that the House did not amend the Senate’s version, the bill now goes to the Governor’s desk.