Last-minute law change saves Pacific County sheriff from ouster

Published 1:30 am Monday, March 9, 2026

Pacific County Sheriff Daniel Garcia is safe from being ejected from office after almost two months of speculation a bill in the Washington State Legislature would immediately oust him.

Senate Bill 5974 takes aim at law enforcement standards statewide with new requirements and oversight for police chiefs and sheriffs and new regulations for how agencies use volunteers.

The most contentious requirement, especially locally, was a clause that a sheriff candidate — including a sitting sheriff — needed to have five years of uninterrupted law enforcement experience to seek election, or even remain in office.

In the whole state, the requirement would have affected only one sitting sheriff — Garcia, who had no law enforcement experience when he was elected in 2022.

The bill passed the Washington State Senate on a 30-19 party-line vote and moved to the Washington State House of Representatives to consider.

“That’s bad news for Daniel Garcia; a Navy veteran elected in 2022 as Pacific County Sheriff on a write-in campaign without prior law enforcement experience,” said state Sen. Jeff Wilson (R-Longview) of the 19th Legislative District, representing Pacific County in the legislature. “If the bill passes, he will be just shy of the bill’s mandate that he spend five years working in law enforcement. It also is bad news for the people of Pacific County, who ought to be able to pick their own sheriff without interference from state government.”

“I do not want Olympia to hire and fire our local sheriffs. That should be up to the local community and those voters,” Wilson later added.

The bill was initially slow moving in the House, bouncing from committee to committee.

While the bill was in the House’s Community Safety Committee, there were several amendments made including changing the experience requirement to two years, and that the experience requirement would not impact a sitting sheriff. T

Those proposed amendments were not accepted on the House floor on March 5. Instead, individual representatives — mostly Republicans — filed dozens of amendments, nearly all of which failed to pass.

In fact, the only amendments that were accepted were from state Reps. Mary Fosse (D-Everett) of the 38th District and Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) of the 45th District. Goodman is the chair of the House’s Community Safety Committee.

The floor hearing lasted hours, and the final vote came around 1:30 a.m. on March 6, when the final amendment, a striker submitted by Goodman, was heard and voted through with a 54-42 vote on a near party-line vote. Four Democrats voted against the bill.

Locally, state Reps. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) and Joel McEntire (R-Cathlamet) of the 19th District “strongly opposed” and voted against the striker.

According to the striker, the requirement for a police chief or sheriff will remain at five years except it will not require the experience to be “uninterrupted.” The experience requirement will also not apply to any sitting police chief, or sheriff.

In fact, Goodman specifically noted the “Pacific County Sheriff” was safe.

The bill, if signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson, would go into effect April 30, 2026, for all sections except 6, 7, and 10 which would go into effect Jan. 1, 2027.

The key takeaway is that Garcia will not be removed from office at the bill’s signing and can run in this year’s election to seek a second term. Garcia’s office did not respond to a request for comment.