Opinion ID: 557349
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sheriff Nat Stairs was a policy-making official

Text: 29 To establish municipal liability under section 1983, it must be shown that the decisionmaker possesses final authority to establish municipal policy with respect to the action ordered. Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 481, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 1299, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986) (plurality opinion). Because municipalities often spread policymaking authority among various officers, a particular officer may have authority to establish binding policy with respect to particular matters, but not others. Id. at 483, 106 S.Ct. at 1300. According to Washington law, in counties organized like Mason County, [t]he sheriff is the chief executive officer and conservator of the peace of the county. Wash.Rev.Code Sec. 36.28.010 (1990). As chief executive officers, sheriffs possess final authority with respect to the training of their deputies, and thus it may be fairly said that their actions constitute county policy on the subject. 30 The dissent argues that [f]inal authority for personnel administration does not rest with the county sheriff; rather it rests with the civil service commission. Dissenting opinion at 2630. This conclusion misses the point: the majority opinion holds that Mason County is liable as a matter of law for failing to train its officers on the constitutional limits of force--not for its hiring practices. 31 The purpose of the Washington Sheriff's Office Civil Service statute is to establish a merit system of employment for county deputy sheriffs and other employees of the office of county sheriff.... Wash.Rev.Code Sec. 41.14.010; Fezzey v. Dodge, 33 Wash.App. 247, 249, 653 P.2d 1359, 1361 (1982). To this end, the Commission is empowered to make rules and regulations regarding appointments, promotions, reallocations, transfers, reinstatements, demotions, suspensions, and discharges, along with other matters connected with the general subject of personnel administration. Wash.Rev.Code Sec. 41.14.060(1). But nowhere does the statute extend the Commission's powers to the field of law enforcement, or specifically in this case, peace officer training. See Clallam County Deputy Sheriff's Guild v. Board of Clallam County Comm'rs, 92 Wash.2d 844, 847, 601 P.2d 943, 946 (1979) (en banc) (A full reading of [Sec. 41.14 of the Revised Code of Washington] reveals that in its enactment the legislature intended to preempt the coverage by county personnel systems of deputy sheriffs' selection, promotion and termination.) (emphasis added). 32 Our holding is consistent with the Supreme Court's teachings in City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 108 S.Ct. 915, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988), and Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986). Both provide for municipal liability in the circumstances here. The example in Pembaur, reiterated in Praprotnik, bears repeating: 33 [T]he County Sheriff may have discretion to hire and fire employees without also being the county official responsible for establishing county employment policy. If this were the case, the Sheriff's decisions respecting employment would not give rise to municipal liability, although similar decisions with respect to law enforcement practices, over which the Sheriff is the official policymaker, would give rise to municipal liability. 34 Id. at 483 n. 12, 106 S.Ct. at 1300 n. 12 (plurality opinion) (emphasis added); see Praprotnik, 485 U.S. at 140, 108 S.Ct. at 932 (Brennan, J., concurring). 35 This example explains that a Sheriff can be the official policymaker regarding law enforcement practices without having final authority over all of its employees' employment practices. This is the case here. The training of peace officers on the use of force is a type of law enforcement practice that falls squarely within the policymaking authority of a County Sheriff. 36