Her Careful Work Began At Random

Gail Kogle ended up playing a part in setting Washington’s government salaries simply by opening her mail.

Last fall, the Spokane woman received a letter saying she was one of 100 Eastern Washington voters chosen at random for a possible spot on the panel setting salaries for key state officials.

“I almost threw the letter away. I thought it was another tax notice or something,” said Kogle, 48.

The letter asked her to mail back a questionnaire to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Only Kogle and 10 others in the group of 100 responded.

A month later, again at random, Kogle was appointed to the 16-member Citizens Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.

The next three months became a crash course in deciding how to set a price tag on the work of Washington’s key elected officials.

“At times, the task has seemed overwhelming,” said Kogle, a job placement counselor for Goodwill Industries.

She’s the only person on the volunteer panel from the Fifth Congressional District - covering nearly all of Eastern Washington. Her term runs until 2003.

Nine of the 16 members are chosen from the state’s nine congressional districts. The others are appointed as representatives of higher education, the legal profession, business and organized labor.

The oldest member of the panel is 87-year-old Esther Irzyk of Winlock, Wash. Seven of the 16 are women.

Kogle calls herself a concerned taxpayer and government observer. Before moving to Spokane in 1990 with her husband, she lived for nearly 20 years in Salem, Ore.

After seeing Oregon legislators regularly fight over their pay raises, Kogle said Washington’s method of a citizen panel is better.

A political moderate, Kogle said serving on the commission has convinced her of the need to keep the best officials in government through adequate salaries.

“I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for. You have to be willing to pay for quality,” she said.

But finding consensus on setting those salaries hasn’t been easy.

That’s why the commission asks for citizen comment. It has already held public hearings in Olympia, Everett, Vancouver and Wenatchee. It plans two more meetings, including a final session on May 22 in Spokane. That starts at 10 a.m. at the Ramada Inn at the airport.

That date is critical, Kogle said. It’s the last chance for people to make comments on suggested salaries.

In 1997, the last time the panel held a hearing in Spokane, only two people came to speak.

“I’d like to see a lot more. Anyone can speak to the commission. If you don’t participate, you have no grounds to complain,” she said.

Citizens are asked to comment on the panel’s initial salary plan. It sets a 9 percent across-the-board increase based on the 1994 salaries of elected officials.

So far, testimony at the earlier hearings has supported pay hikes.

Talking to people in Spokane, though, Kogle said she hears the opposite.

“I tell them what I do and a lot of people tell me: `You’re going to cut back those salaries, aren’t you?’ “Most have the perception that state officials are all fat cats with big salaries.”

Right after the May 22 hearing in Spokane ends, the commission will hold a work session to draft the final recommended salaries.

Among commission members, Kogle says she’s somewhere in the middle, favoring a general increase. She prefers to assign increases for certain jobs instead of an across-theboard hike.

Kogle says some state jobs probably warrant a larger pay hike than others. The state attorney general, for example, deserves a bigger raise than the lieutenant governor in her view.

The attorney general’s salary hasn’t kept pace with those of other state elected officials, Kogle said.

“And the job is important. Look at what our attorney general did in reaching that settlement with the tobacco companies,” she said.

She also favors giving legislators a salary in the low-$30,000s. They now earn $28,300 a year.

“In this day and age, we expect them to do more than they’re compensated for. They work on all sorts of issues even when not in session,” she said.

Kogle and other commission members will regroup in 2001 and once again review salaries. They aren’t paid, but receive per diem expenses for hearings and work sessions.

This sidebar appeared with the story: THE NET Further information on the commission can be found online at http://www.salaries.wa.gov.