Four County Elected Officials To Get $2,000 Raise Commissioners’ Vote 2-1 As Mccaslin Balks At Increasing Assessor’S Salary

Four of Spokane County’s elected officials will get $2,000-per-year raises beginning July 1.

The annual salaries for the assessor, auditor, clerk and treasurer will increase from $59,000 to $61,000 under a measure passed Tuesday by county commissioners.

The vote was 2-1, with Commissioners John Roskelley and Phil Harris outvoting colleague Kate McCaslin.

McCaslin said she supported raising the pay of the auditor, clerk and treasurer but could not “in good conscience” vote to increase the assessor’s salary.

Assessor Sadie Charlene Cooney’s office has been plagued with problems in recent years, including an unresolved dispute with the city of Spokane over a $150,000 shortfall in the city’s emergency medical services levy.

“If you want to reward poor performance, that’s up to you,” McCaslin told her colleagues before Tuesday’s vote. “I think it’s outrageous.”

Harris and Roskelley countered that they were upgrading the pay for the position, not the person.

Tuesday’s vote came eight months after a citizens committee recommended boosting the salaries of eight of the county’s nine elected officials. Only the sheriff, who already makes more than most of his colleagues in the state, was excluded.

Commissioners have not decided what to do about the prosecuting attorney’s salary or their own, which the committee also recommended raising.

They have decided to put a measure on the Sept. 19 ballot asking voters if they would support forming a randomly selected committee that would advise commissioners on future salary adjustments.