Editorial: Don’t blame Condon for city’s salary problems

Spokane residents howled last month when a proposition they had passed in 2011 imposed a $7,000 pay increase on Mayor David Condon, but last week only a handful of people turned out for a forum on city employee pay chaired by City Councilman Mike Fagan.

Considering that 163 other city employees earn more than $100,000, the outrage is way too narrowly focused. Sure, the buck stops at the mayor’s desk, but many working for the city have their stash, too.

Condon, defying the law, has rejected the pay increase and waived all future claims to the additional money. He also has declined his pension, saving the city another $14,000 per year. The line of other city employees willing to make the same gesture is short.

Granted, the mayor has other resources. For example, he will draw a federal pension based on 14 years of service with the U.S. Army and as an aide to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, but many a firefighter or police officer can look forward to a very comfortable retirement.

On Monday, Condon said he will make a three-fisted attack on the city’s human resource expenses, starting with a proposal to reconstitute the Salary Review Commission that sets City Council salaries, and in the future would set the mayor’s. He also called for a survey of wages for all job classifications to see how they compare with like jobs in the private sector.

To the extent these two initiatives increase salary transparency, they will be worthwhile, but what effect they might have on future salaries is unclear.

The third effort could have the biggest impact but has the least hope of enactment.

Public safety unions have enjoyed the protection of an arbitration process created decades ago in return for no-strike contracts. Since then, cities have so consistently lost in disputes taken to arbitration they have given up. A negotiating stalemate taken to arbitration is a sure loser, effectively robbing cities of much leverage in salary talks.

The recession barely registered among public safety workers. In Spokane, senior firefighters were OK with cutting loose those with less seniority as long as they got their pay increases. Condon says the gap between average Spokane household incomes and public safety worker incomes has ballooned as a result of contracts negotiated by previous administrations.

In past legislative sessions, the cities have unsuccessfully sought language that would require arbitrators to consider a city’s ability to pay higher salaries when, as they were a few years ago, revenues are declining.

Condon’s solution is a less ambitious bill that would require that arbitrators include disparities in housing costs when making decisions. An equation that accounted for Spokane’s relatively inexpensive housing would be welcome.

But don’t expect much of a reception in Olympia, where anti-crime Republicans will not take on public safety constituents, and pro-union Democrats are not going to step up either.

Condon took a lot of heat for a salary increase he did not seek, or want. Really, the fire should be in the Capitol.