Wenatchee Valley mayors want 1 police chief to oversee both departments

This story was updated Thursday afternoon.

The Wenatchee and East Wenatchee mayors together introduced a new, groundbreaking proposal in law enforcement to their respective city councils Wednesday: one police chief overseeing both departments in a trial run next year.

The idea was pitched at a two-city joint session of the councils after Wenatchee Mayor Mike Poirier announced he would be seeking his council's approval for Edgar Reinfeld to become the full-time city administrator.

As the full-time city administrator, Reinfeld would have to depart from his other role as the Wenatchee Police Department Chief.

"He really has demonstrated competence in everything he's done, and he's the right person to be our permanent city administrator," said Poirier about Reinfeld.

Poirier said that the two finalists for the positions were not the right fit for the city and decided to offer the job fully to Reinfeld. Reinfeld is currently the Wenatchee Police Department chief but has been serving as the interim city administrator since August after Laura Gloria departed from the role.

Under the proposal, if Reinfeld is appointed as the city administrator, his counterpart across the Columbia River, Chief Rick Johnson, would lead both departments instead of appointing a new chief from the Wenatchee department's ranks.

The idea was first introduced to the council members Wednesday with the mayors and a select number of staff had been working on this initial proposal in secret for the last couple of weeks.

The mayors argued that this proposal is a testament of the two city's ability to work together and would only produce more efficient results for both police departments and possibly some cost-savings.

Reinfeld said both cities would share the costs of Johnson's salary proportionally - about 68% to 32%.

Reinfeld explained that Johnson would contract out chief services via an interlocal agreement to the Wenatchee Police Department and be sworn in as the new chief.

Chains of command would remain the same, and control of each department would remain in the separate hands of each city. The only personnel change would be that the top position would be occupied by the same person on both sides of the river, who is answerable to both city governments.

"Your captains will be the Wenatchee captains, the East Wenatchee captain will be the East Wenatchee captain," said Johnson "Already, if there's a major incident, we all end up there and help each other and support each other, but there's never any question on who's calling the shots for each entity."

Wenatchee Capt. Brian Chance - who himself applied to become the new Wenatchee police chief in 2023 against Reinfeld - said he was in support of this endeavor "110%."

Steven D. Strachan, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, provided a statewide perspective on the possible implications of this venture, sharing his concern about the future of law enforcement in Washington.

"A lot of times when people talk about innovative approaches like this one, it's when they're in crisis," he said. "It's a financial crisis … or there's a mandate of some sort, or there's litigation of some sort. What I think is so great is that, this isn't a crisis. This is because you have good relationships, you have good leadership."

Before the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department was formed, Chief Brian Brett was the fire chief for Chelan County Fire District 1, but Douglas County Fire District 2 contracted out chief services making Brett chief over two departments. But in law enforcement, this would be the first structure of its kind in Washington, according to Strachan.

Council members from both cities expressed feeling a bit overwhelmed and said they had many questions going forward but most expressed hope that the idea could be a positive change.

Wenatchee Council member Mayra Navarro Gomez asked Johnson if he felt whether this was a reasonable request: being the chief for two police departments.

Johnson said that part of the experiment in this proposal would be to find that out, but he said that he and Reinfeld already attend many of the same events and multi-jurisdictional meetings like RiverCom 911 or the Columbia River Drug Task Force. Being the chief of another department would not double his calendar, he said.

"As far as the day-to-day operations … I think a change for both agencies my expectation would be that the captains are running the day-to-day operations," he said.

Reinfeld chimed in and said that he had full confidence that Johnson could do this.

East Wenatchee Council member Christine Johnson also expressed confidence in Johnson's ability and decision-making but said she was cognizant of constituents in East Wenatchee who would strongly dislike this kind of structure.

"I know there's a segment of population in East Wenatchee who are concerned about being absorbed by Wenatchee, and I think you know that they're going to see this as a potential for that," Johnson said. "I'm just throwing that out there. I hear what you're saying about them being separate. I just think that there's a potential for some of the public to be concerned about that coming down the road."

Wednesday's joint meeting was a workshop session, and no decisions were made at the meeting. There is no set timeline at this time; any proposed changes would take effect only after both city councils have agreed and signed an interlocal agreement.

Reinfeld suggested that this trial period go through the end of 2027 but the process for city council to come to terms with the proposal could take as long as they needed.

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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 8:38 PM.