County leaders’ salaries rising

After getting a $7,000 pay raise this year, Spokane County’s commissioners will get another salary spike: In March, they’ll each get another $13,000 – boosting their wage to $93,000 a year.

The pay increase was unanimously approved Saturday by the county’s Citizens’ Salary Review Committee, a 10-member volunteer board that determines the commissioners’ pay as well as recommends salary increases for other county elected officials.

In February, the committee gave the commissioners a 9.3 percent pay boost. This latest raise represents an increase of about 13 percent.

The raises aren’t based on performance or personality, according to committee members, who spent more than three hours discussing the issue during a public meeting at the county’s human resources office. Instead, they examined other criteria including the overall county budget, the commissioners’ work duties, previous pay increases and how their salaries compare to those of commissioners in similar-size counties in Washington.

“The county commissioners were underpaid for the amount of responsibilities they have,” committee member Tom Cassidy said.

The committee examined commissioners’ salaries in six counties – Pierce, Clark, Snohomish, Kitsap, Yakima and Benton – and found the pay for leaders in Spokane County to be “quite a bit behind,” Cassidy said. Depending on the county, most make about $93,000 to just under $100,000, he said – significantly more than the $82,000 the Spokane County commissioners currently earn. Cassidy noted that commissioners in Spokane County also have more to do. Some counties have as many as eight or nine people on their board of commissioners, he said, while Spokane has only three.

When the Citizens’ Salary Review Committee was created six years ago, salaries for Spokane County commissioners were at “rock bottom” compared with others in the state, said Robert Coomes, who has been on the board for the past five years. Next year will be the first time that they’ll make the same amount as other county leaders in the state, he said.

The impact of this pay raise on the overall county budget will be minimal, members said.

By law, the commissioners have to accept the salary increase, but they do have the option to return the money to the county. Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jim Emacio, who attended Saturday’s meeting, said during the hearing that he can think of only two commissioners in the past 33 years who have given the money back.

“I have a job I love, and the salary was not what motivated me to do this in the first place,” said Commissioner Todd Mielke, who’s not sure whether he’ll return or keep the salary increase in March.

“When I ran for office, I knew what the pay was. Salary wasn’t a factor. It’s not now, and it won’t be in the future.”

Mielke, who noted that he took a “significant” pay cut when he was elected commissioner in 2004, said he respects the hard work and recommendations of the volunteers on the review committee.

Commissioners Mark Richard and Phil Harris could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.

Before this year, the last time commissioners in Spokane County got a raise was in 2002. In 2003, members of the salary review committee decided not to grant any increases because two of the commissioners – neither of whom is still on the board – said they didn’t want the extra money.

The commissioners’ current salary is slightly more than the $77,000 earned by other elected officials including the county auditor, assessor, clerk and treasurer. But it is significantly less compared with the sheriff’s annual salary of about $105,000 or the $115,000 earned by the prosecuting attorney, according to figures from Cathy Malzahn, the county’s human resources director.

Spokane County commissioners receive the same benefit package as other county employees, but they don’t get vacation days or sick leave. Nor are they eligible for unemployment if they lose an election.

All but two of the people on the salary review committee – Cassidy and Coomes – are new this year. The group is made up of four people representing human resources, business, labor and the legal field who were appointed by the commissioners, while the rest are randomly selected from each of the three commissioner districts.

The committee’s next meeting is Nov. 4, 2006.