News Flash

The city’s Civil Service Commission has resumed active service in recent months under a new three-person group of volunteer members. This trio is reviving the work of a group that that was originally created at the same time as the city’s Planning Commission in December of 2001.  Police Chief Damon Simmons has advocated for the Civil Service Commission’s return after the group had been out of operation for the last few years.

The three volunteers on the Civil Service Commission are assigned to monitor the procedures related to the city police department’s hires and promotions.  The commission has a preliminary role in certifying newly hired members to the city’s police, and is the group that would conduct hearings and rulings on any complaints involving the rejection of applicants to the department. 

Civil service commissions for city police are established by state law. As defined in RCW 41.12, each city’s commission must have three members who are residents of the city they are serving, and those members are appointed to staggered terms of six years.

The city opened up recruitment to reactivate the Liberty Lake Civil Service Commission during the initial months of 2023. After a review and selection process that was followed by some initial orientation sessions with the three chosen members, the new commissioners held their first official meetings at the end of this past year.   Sgt. Mike Bogenreif serves as the Police Department’s liaison to the commission.  

“The chief has got three people overlooking processes in this commission who care very much about law enforcement,” said commission chairman Joe Mann.  “We want to help make sure hirings, promotions, and dismissals are transparent and fair to the Police Department.  Our primary focus is to make sure the Police Department is operating as it should be.”

The group now meets on the third Thursday of each month at 4 p.m. in the Liberty Lake City Hall’s Council Chambers. Those meetings are also attended by the city’s human resources manager, Heidi Workman, who serves as the commission’s secretary and chief examiner. Meetings so far have been very short, with recent activities highlighted by the certification of two new officers in January and initializing a search process for an attorney who would be retained for the commission’s work.  

The Civil Service Commission's web page can be found here, and is listed under the "Your Government" tab at the top of the city's homepage.

Meet the commissioners:

• Joe Mann, chairman, is already familiar with sitting behind the table of the Council Chambers – and in serving on a civil service commission.  He’s currently a member of the city’s Planning Commission, which Mann joined a year following his 2018 move to Liberty Lake in.  Plus, he joined the Spokane Valley Fire Department’s Civil Service Commission last September.  Mann studied pre-medicine at Auburn University, then earned his master’s degree in the systems analysis field at the University of Southern California.   He served in the Air Force, worked in the computer industry, and retired as a realtor in 2015.
   “I felt it important to give back to the community,” said Mann on his decision to apply for Liberty Lake’s Civil Service Commission.  “Law enforcement and public safety are the most important things a city does.”    
• Maria Hatcher grew up in north Idaho and has been a Liberty Lake resident since 2005.  She obtained her R.N. degree from North Idaho College and has a 25-year resume in nursing work.  Along the way, she’s been an active volunteer with Spokane County Search and Rescue, a member of the Drug and Substance Abuse Council of Bonner County, and part of Inland Northwest Honor Flight trips. 
   “I believe in being part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” said Hatcher.  “I want to help the community come together and feel safe, and law enforcement and public safety go hand in hand with that.”
• Brittany Webster is a native of California’s Santa Barbara area who moved to Liberty Lake nine years ago and whose husband, Jason, is a Spokane firefighter.  Like Mann, she’s on the Spokane Valley Fire Department’s Civil Service Commission, having joined that group in January of 2022 and becoming its chair last August.   Webster holds a BS in kinesiology and an MA in sports psychology from California State University-Fresno, and earned her PHD in Biblical counseling from The Andersonville Theological Seminary online program out of Georgia.
   “I joined because I was hoping to be able to help have a bigger influence in my community,” said Webster.  “I like laws.  That sleuthing is fun for me.  I didn’t know I have a love for that until I started in civil service with the Fire Department.”