Sheriff’s Pay Cut $20,000 Next Term Goldman’s Salary Frozen At $90,344 For The Rest Of This Term, Then It’s $70,000

Spokane County commissioners Tuesday froze Sheriff John Goldman’s annual paycheck at $90,344 until the end of his term, and then will slice the job’s pay by about $20,000.

If Goldman is re-elected, he’ll earn an estimated $70,000 a year, commissioners said, in keeping with the top cops in comparable counties.

“That’s interesting,” was all Goldman had to say Tuesday. He was not invited to the meeting.

“I don’t think a response from me at this point will have any impact on what they do, and I guess we’ll just deal with that at that time.”

After the meat-ax approach to the sheriff’s salary, the sheriff will earn less than his two under-sheriffs, paid $84,000 a year.

Commission Chairman Phil Harris said that’s OK.

“I have no problem with my employees making more money than me,” he said, noting that several managers earn nearly $25,000 more than the commissioners’ $57,000 annual salary.

“Elected officials are not here to make big bucks,” Harris continued. “You can freeze mine. I didn’t come here for the money.”

Undersheriffs Mike Aubrey and Burel Schulz could not be reached for comment.

Harris was supported by Commissioner Steve Hasson on freezing Goldman’s salary until his term expires in 1998, and then cutting it back.

Commissioner John Roskelley agreed with the freeze but wants all elected officials’ salaries evaluated with their peers statewide before ordering cuts to the sheriff’s pay.

“It almost looks like we’re picking on the sheriff,” Roskelley said.

County Human Resources Director Ben Duncan recently surveyed six counties closest in size to Spokane County.

Goldman earns more than his West Side counterparts, except the King County sheriff, even though the cost of living on the other side of the Cascades is 13.5 percent a year higher, Duncan said.

Harris noted that Goldman earns a little more than the Pierce County sheriff in Tacoma, even though it’s 1-1/2 times larger than Spokane County and has “a major drug tunnel that runs through there.”

The board chairman also said Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan, who is paid $82,500 a year, has a job “with a higher degree of difficulty” than Goldman, even though the sheriff is also responsible for the county jail.

The main point of contention with Goldman’s salary is how he receives annual raises.

A few years ago, Hasson and two former commissioners signed a resolution tying the sheriff’s increases to the same percentage won by unionized deputies.

But because the sheriff argues management’s viewpoint against the union, he would be in effect negotiating his own raise - a conflict of interest.

Hasson has tried to rescind his action ever since.

Goldman has said all along that he agrees with separating his raises from the union and is willing to take 2 percent annual increases, such as those given to commissioners and most other elected officials.

The soft-spoken sheriff traded barbs recently with the acerbic Hasson.

Roskelley chided Hasson for the feud and for leaving the appearance of a “dysfunctional” government.

“We need to work out our animosity before it gets to the paper,” Roskelley said.

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