Sheriff candidate took disability retirement in Washington

Lincoln County sheriff candidate Bill Clark said he had no intention of returning to law enforcement when he retired 11 years ago as chief of police position in a small town in Washington state.

Clark and his wife Sandy, married for 47 years, had bought property in Lincoln County in 1999 and had started to build a log cabin by hand. By 2012 they were ready to move in and settle into a quiet retirement in their Montana home.

But sometime during the last three years, Clark – who became known in the community as the chairman of the former Cabinet View Fire Service Area board and as one of the people behind the nonprofit group Camp Patriot – felt a pull to return to a career in public service.

One sticking point, however, is that Clark took a disability retirement from his job as police chief in Newport, Wash. in 2003. To receive early-retirement benefits due to a disability, Clark signed paperwork stating that the disability rendered him unable to adequately perform the duties as an officer. Three doctors conducted medical assessments on Clark and signed off on his request for disability retirement.

Now, Clark is running for sheriff of Lincoln County against incumbent Roby Bowe. Clark is campaigning as a constitutionalist with 28 years of experience in law enforcement. The general election will be held in November.

Clark spoke of the disability retirement, following a public records request by The Western News to Washington Disability Retirement Systems that showed Clark was still receiving duty-related benefits from the Law Enforcement Officers’ and Fire Fighters’ Retirement System (LEOFF) 1. That means Clark draws disability retirement benefits tax-free, including at least 50 percent of his final salary as well as lifelong medical benefits, including long-term health care.

Guidelines for this type of pension state that, to be eligible, a person must prove that they are not able to perform the normal routine duties of their position with average efficiency. To do this, the applicant must be assessed by one or more physicians to determine that the applicant can no longer perform job duties adequately.

A representative from the Washington state disability board said a disability retiree is not allowed to hold a similar position in the state of Washington and still continue with a disability retirement benefit. However, there is nothing in statute that would prevent the retiree from holding a similar position in Montana.

Officials refused to disclose the specifics of Clark’s disability, citing a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services privacy rule.

This week Clark said the position of police chief and county sheriff “were like apples and oranges” and were not similar.

According to the National Sheriff Association, the difference between a county sheriff and a chief of police is that a sheriff is generally the highest law-enforcement officer of a county while a chief of police is a municipal employee. It is also different in that the sheriff is an elected position, while the police chief is appointed.

Clark refused to provide a copy of his medical records regarding the disability that caused his retirement. But he said the disability was related to high blood pressure due to “unrelenting” stress.

Long hours as the Newport police chief had contributed to exhaustion on the job, he said. He did not expect the Lincoln County Sheriff role to have the same long hours.

“I would get called out in the middle of the night and then show up for my shift the next morning – my blood pressure was through the roof,” Clark said. “But if people needed me, I would go.”

In retrospect, Clark would not have taken the position at Newport if he had known it would have such an impact on his health, he said.

“If I had known at the beginning what I knew at the end – it was too big a price to pay,” Clark said.

Clark came into the position of chief of police in 1998, at a time when the department had been plagued by distrust following the exit of the former chief of police, Clark said. He said this was one of the reasons for “high emotions” at his department and at the Newport City Council during his tenure as chief.

Clark was put on administrative leave, with pay, in 2000, after he told city council members that he was on track to overspend his department’s budget by $17,000 that year. This was partly because he purchased three UMP-45 sub-machine guns. Clark said he thought the gun purchase had been approved by the Newport City Council through a grant.

However, Washington newspapers at the time wrote that the purchase had not been approved by the Newport City Council. Council members were quoted as saying they tried to counsel Clark about his budget on several occasions with no success, and they perceived he didn’t understand the seriousness of overspending his budget and was reluctant to cut expenditures.

Clark was quoted as saying he was put on administrative leave after a misunderstanding between himself and the City Council, including then-city administrator Delphine Palmer, who Clark said had approved a budget adjustment.

Palmer, who is now retired and living in Oregon, said she only vaguely remembered Clark being on administrative leave and did not remember the details.

Newport City Administrator Ray King, who took over from Palmer before Clark retired in 2003, referred to Clark as “quite a character” but declined to comment further on Clark’s time. King said the Washington newspapers reported on Clark accurately.

Following his suspension, Clark was given 30 days to implement a plan to reduce spending, including directives that he abandon plans to train officers as a SWAT team and stop using the department’s new drug-sniffing dog in federal investigations at the Canadian border.

Last week, Clark said he didn’t remember the details of being put on administrative leave, but said it had been based on “false allegations” that he had not followed orders.

“Budgets mean something to me,” Clark said, adding that in Newport “the politics were a pain but I loved the people.”

Regarding further cuts to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in years to come, Clark said they wouldn’t be done without “a long, hard talk.”

He said he would have demanded the county commissioners implement a hiring freeze across the county before he would have agreed to cut $200,000 from his department’s budget. He was referring to budget cuts that county commissioners enacted last year. The commissioners have sole discretion to decide budget matters for the county.

“I wouldn’t have just offered up $200,000,” Clark said. “Why should the sheriff’s office bear the brunt?”

Lee Bennett, who worked with Clark before taking over his position as police chief for Newport after Clark retired, said it was hard to hold the chief of police position and not make enemies. Bennett is now chief of police in Airway Heights, Washington.

“Bill is a good guy, and he wants to try to help people out,” Bennett said. “He had a tenuous relationship with the city administrator (Ray King), but he’s a very stable, very honest guy.”

Palmer said Clark would make an excellent sheriff.

“I can’t recommend him highly enough,” Palmer said. “He did excellent work with young people in the community and had a tremendous work ethic.”

Palmer said Clark was under a lot of stress before he retired and assumed that had something to do with his disability retirement.

Clark is one of more than 3,000 LEOFF-1 retirees in the Washington retirement system, according to a 2013 three-part series by the Associated Press. The pension plan was closed off in 1977 and replaced with a more restrictive retirement plan called LEOFF-2.

Under LEOFF-1, a worker could get a disability designation if they could no longer perform their job with “average” efficiency, while LEOFF-2 workers only get a disability designation if they can no longer perform their job at all.

According to both Washington Disability Services and Montana Public Retirement Systems, there is no conflict with Clark holding the position of county sheriff and receiving the disability retirement. However, there would be a conflict if Clark was running for county sheriff in Washington.

Both the Montana Attorney General’s Office and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) said it is not up to a state agency to require a background or medical check for a county sheriff. It was up to each county to decide if that was necessary.

Clark said he did not have go through a medical or background check to run for county sheriff. County attorney Bernie Cassidy said the only requirement was that the person was a county resident, over 18, and registered to vote.

For Clark, the run for county sheriff is a chance to use what he has learned about the U.S. Constitution in recent years to help him do a more effective job as a law enforcement officer. One of his ideas is to require the Sheriff’s Office staff to pass a free online course on the Constitution.

“We (law enforcement) are a piece of the process under the Constitution,” Clark said. “We’re not where everything stops. I’m saying let’s not go out and irritate people. Let’s work on creating better relationships.”