King County and the union for its sheriff deputies have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract.

Details of the agreement won’t be revealed publicly until after it’s reviewed and voted on by the approximately 650 deputies who are members of the King County Police Officers Guild. But a county spokeswoman said the proposal includes pay increases for each year of the contract.

It also has provisions for the county to implement a civilian review process for the first time. Such reviews, in which citizens help monitor the Sheriff Department’s internal investigations of any misconduct by its officers, were among recommendations that emerged from a study in 2006 of personnel and management issues in the department.

County Executive Ron Sims said the guild entered contract negotiations a year earlier than scheduled in order to help speed up implementation of the study’s recommendations. He commended the union for not allowing the issue of citizen involvement in departmental probes to “become a battle.”

Sims said county government has “a good working relationship with the guild, and that relationship helped us work through complex and difficult issues that will benefit our guild members and the public.”

The guild membership includes officers assigned to the Covington and Maple Valley police departments, which are contracted through the county.

According to Sims, an important element of the contract is moving deputies to the same health insurance carriers as the rest of county government’s employees. That would save the county money and give deputies better coverage, he said.

The tentative contract also includes a procedure for early recognition of poor work by deputies as part of their performance evaluations.

Guild and county officials reportedly will continue to discuss other issues of concern to the county in ongoing labor management committees.