Members of the Tumwater City Council convened for their first regular bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1, inside Tumwater City Hall.
During the meeting, proclamations were made declaring Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 to be National Hispanic Heritage Month in the Thurston County city, and Sept. 15 to be National Voter Registration Day ahead of the November general election.
On hand to accept the National Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation document were Hispanic Roundtable members Olivia Salazar de Breaux, Paulette Perez Burgos and Bonnie Hale. Thurston County Auditor’s Office election technician Lara Karlson accepted the National Voter Registration Day proclamation.
During the Sept. 1 meeting, councilors also unanimously approved a new two-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Tumwater Police Guild in an effort to boost officer retention rates, especially when it comes to instructors within the police department.
The new CBA establishes pay raises over the next three years for Tumwater Police Department staff. In 2027, they will get a 4.5% raise, followed by raises between 2.5% and 5% in 2028 and 2029, subject to negotiation.
Next year’s raise is based on U.S. Department of Labor Statistics’ CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) June 2026 data, and the 2028 and 2029 raises will be based on the June CPI-U data from previous years as well. Funding for the pay raises will come from existing Tumwater budget general fund dollars along with the existing public safety tax.
Extra pay incentives were added to recognize skill and responsibility for those who are taking on training roles in the department, Tumwater Police Chief Carlos Quiles explained.
“Since we don’t have (a) dedicated training department, these officers take these (training) areas on as additional duties — which is additional hours, additional work on their days off,” Quiles said. “We have to incentivize folks to want to come do this work, because it’s so important … You can be good at your job, but teaching it to others is a completely different matter. Finding these folks, and getting them to stay, is why we focused on this.”
Larger police departments can afford to pay officers to just be instructors, but in Tumwater that is currently not the case, he added.
Tumwater Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Crimmins explained repairs are needed with the department’s T1 fire station bathroom and shower facilities.
“T1 was built back in 2000 … The showers are leaking, and we need to do some work on raising the shower heads, because apparently our firefighters are getting taller,” Crimmins said.
To allow his firefighters and EMTs to continue taking showers during their shifts after responding to calls, Crimmins proposed temporarily leasing an 8-stall mobile shower trailer the neighboring Lacey Fire District 3 fire department utilizes for its training academy.
Using already allocated budget funds, Crimmins proposed temporarily leasing the shower trailer from Lacey for around a month while the T1 bathrooms and showers are renovated.
The cost to lease it for that period is $2,250, and the council unanimously approved Crimmins’ request.
