Former Sheriff John Urquhart responds to allegations of retaliation

Former King County Sheriff John Urquhart said on KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that he never denied an employee’s vacation request over politics, or refused to lend a hand in the transition after he was voted out of office in 2017, as alleged by Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht.

The Office of the Ombuds is currently investigating Johanknecht for granting a request of 144 excess vacation carryover hours — the equivalent of 18 days, or over $10,000 in pay — to Undersheriff Scott Somers after she assumed office in January 2018.

In a letter to the Ombuds and on KTTH’s Jason Rantz Show Wednesday, Johanknecht claimed that Somers was prevented from taking his earned vacation because he was busy helping her with her campaign, and her transition into the role of sheriff.

According to King County Code 3.12.190, county employees are not allowed to carry over more than the maximum accrual amount of 480 vacation hours, or 60 days, from one calendar year to the next. People retiring from the county are permitted to cash out those 480 hours upon retiring.

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Requests for exceptions to the carryover rule can be made, but the employee must be able to demonstrate that “cyclical workloads, work assignments or other reasons as may be in the best interests of the county” kept them from using their vacation time.

“When I came on in 2012, it didn’t take me long to figure out that prior sheriffs had a policy of pretty much just rubber-stamping these requests from year to year,” Urquhart said. “And I didn’t think that was right, so over the five years I was sheriff, I did try to tighten up on that policy. And every year we would encourage people all year long to manage your vacation, take your vacation.”

His staff, he said, would send out regular reminders throughout the year to take all vacation hours exceeding 480. There was no special treatment for veterans of the department — on the contrary, those with seniority were expected to set an example for the rank-and-file employees.

In late 2017, then-Captain Somers submitted a request to carry over 176 hours (22 days) on top of the 480 to then-Major Johanknecht, who approved it and sent it to Urquhart for final approval. Urquhart denied it, writing that Somers “had ample opportunity to use excess vacation during 2017.”

Allegations of retaliation

Johanknecht suggested that Urquhart’s denial could have been an act of revenge against Somers for the instrumental role he took in Johanknecht’s campaign.

“My concern was that this that the former sheriff’s actions could be retaliatory,” Sheriff Johanknecht told KTTH’s Jason Rantz. “I took them as being retaliatory for Mr. Somers working on my campaign in our off-duty time.”

Urquhart said that is entirely wrong.

“I denied his carryover request because he didn’t document why he couldn’t use his vacation for the first 11 months of 2017, which included hours that I had approved the previous year,” he said. “So that’s the only reason it was turned down. He knew full well what the policy was.”

He added that when Johanknecht approved the original request in 2017, she had not provided an explanation for what Somers was doing before the transition period.

Furthermore, he said, “retaliation is a serious allegation,” and if the Office of the Ombuds had any concern that that was an issue, it would have investigated the matter.

Johanknecht claimed that Somers’ workload was especially heavy due to receiving very little aid from the former administration in the transition period.

“After we won the campaign we had a very short window of about six weeks to transition and as head of the department,” she described. “So during that time I was not getting any cooperation from the former sheriff, and so it made the job a little bit more difficult to interview a bunch of people and do the work of the department to be prepared on January 1 when I took office.”

“There was no attempt by the former administration to assist in a transition plan,” she reiterated in a letter to the Office of the Ombuds. “Former Sheriff Urquhart did not meet with me, did not allow access to the executive offices and did not provide any transitional information to me.”

She called that time a “period of strained relations between the departing administration and the new administration.”

In response, the former sheriff said that he was indeed out of town right after the November election, as well as for much of December 2017 due to a family Christmas trip. However, he said, his staff was incredibly helpful to the newcomers while he was away.

“I instructed my chief of staff Chris Barringer to reach out to Mitzi and to Scott Somers, and he did, and he met with them, offered whatever help they needed, and they never called him back,” he said. “In fact, they fired him on December 30.”

He explained that his executive assistant and undersheriff set up many meetings over that period with the new staff “as much as necessary to ensure a smooth transition.” The former undersheriff worked with the new administration through April 2018.

“They had plenty of people to work with, so this whole idea that we were, I was, uncooperative just doesn’t fly,” he said.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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