CHELAN — Jay Witherbee knows firsthand the pros and cons associated with dissolving a city’s police department and contracting those services out to the local sheriff’s office.

As the current mayor of Chelan, Witherbee said he was the lone holdout when the Chelan City Council voted to contract the city’s police force with the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in November 2003.

That decision has been raised by the Poulsbo Police Association in its efforts to rally support for keeping the Poulsbo Police Department intact instead of possibly contracting out with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

“I was elected, but I wasn’t the sitting mayor,” Witherbee said. “I was directed by the city council to develop and implement a law enforcement services agreement with Chelan County.”

Despite having some significant reservations about the decision, Witherbee said he worked hard to help write a contract that would meet the city’s law enforcement needs, even though it meant dissolving the city’s police department.

“At the end of the day we were relatively successful in negotiating a good contract,” he said.

That decision marked the end of an almost decade-long debate as the city and county had explored those possibilities in the past, Witherbee said.

“Ours has worked very well. Several of us had real concerns,” he said. “Now a full three years later, I can tell you it’s a nice operation.”

One of the keys to success has been the fact that the city provides a building, which is leased by the county, the Washington State Department of Corrections and the Washington State Patrol, he said.

“If I were going to give any advice, I would say the key would be establishing a precinct,” he said. “You want to provide a facility to them that makes them feel as comfortable as possible.”

Since the city owns the building outright, it is able to lease it to various agencies at a less-than-market rate, but the benefit of having all those groups centrally located has paid big dividends, Witherbee said.

“We have a nice clean contract, and there is some upside because of the things they (Chelan County Sheriff’s Office) are able to bring to the table,” he said. The CCSO has resources the city would otherwise be unable to afford.

However, with the contract have come some changes such as the city having to also contract out its parking enforcement and animal control services, because the county sheriff’s office doesn’t provide them, he said.

Even so, the sheriff’s office has brought a different brand of law enforcement to the city, Witherbee said.

“They have law enforcement and public safety officers that are a different caliber,” he said. “The bring a high level of professionalism.”

After three years of contracting with the county, most of the city’s police department’s personnel are no longer with the city, even though they didn’t lose their jobs during the switch, Witherbee said.

“Most of them have moved on for various reasons,” he said. “Overall it’s been a positive experience.”

Because he is now aware of Poulsbo’s situation, Witherbee said he is looking forward to meeting with Mayor Kathryn Quade and the rest of the city’s representatives at the upcoming Association of Washington Cities legislative conference in February in Olympia.

“Just because it worked for us, doesn’t mean it will work for everyone,” Witherbee said.