Administrators’ wages don’t follow easy formula

Q: Why is pay so high in Spokane Valley?

A: Spokane Valley City Manager Dave Mercier has a base salary larger than Spokane’s mayor and chief operating officer and is among the highest paid government employees in the county.

Hired when the city incorporated, Mercier is ultimately responsible for the day-to-day running of the young city and keeping it in the black.

“In a council-manager form of government you would have your city manager paid like a CEO,” said Spokane Valley Mayor Diana Wilhite.

Mercier manages a staff of about 90 and oversees a budget of almost $87 million.

By comparison, Spokane employs about 2,000 people. But, Wilhite said, it’s difficult to compare Spokane’s top managers’ compensation to those in Spokane Valley because Spokane has a different form of government, in which the mayor is the chief executive.

“I did an exhaustive survey of salary and benefits in the state of Washington” in cities with governments similar to Spokane Valley’s, Wilhite said.

“I would not say that our salary is out of line,” she said.

Mercier joined the city after serving as the first city manager of Battle Ground, Wash. Since the early 1980s he’s held high-level management jobs at municipalities and government agencies in Washington and Maine.

– Peter Barnes

Q: Is Spokane Public Schools top-heavy?

A: Not if the yardstick is other school districts.

The Spokane school district has 23 employees earning six-figure salaries, more than any other public school district in the region. But the district spends a smaller percentage of its budget on administrative costs than some others, and it doesn’t appear to be out of line when compared with other Washington districts of its size.

According to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Spokane, with 28,300 students, spent 12.8 percent – $33.2 million – of its total expenditures last year on administrative costs. That includes salaries for superintendents, principals and other top officials, as well as their secretaries and related costs like administrative office supplies.

That compares with 13.9 percent in Tacoma ($37.3 million) and 14.5 percent in Seattle ($60.8 million).

Locally, administrative costs amounted to 16 percent of the budget – $4.8 million – in the much-smaller West Valley School District and 11.8 percent – $3.2 million – in Cheney Public Schools. The Mead School District spent 15 percent on administration; Central Valley School District, the second-largest district in Spokane County, spent 12 percent.

– Sara Leaming

Q: Why does Spokane County have two medical examiners?

A: The forensic pathologists who share top duties at the Medical Examiner’s Office are the county’s highest-paid employees. They share equal status and responsibility.

Dr. Sally Aiken and Dr. John Howard earn $178,839 each for work that includes evaluating suspicious deaths and conducting autopsies. In 2006, the office supervised 557 cases and performed 423 autopsies, according to the Medical Examiner’s annual report.

The 8-year-old office had been led by Aiken, who was assisted by a deputy medical examiner. That changed in January, said Marshall Farnell, the county’s chief executive.

“Sally wanted someone to help on the administrative side. She just gets inundated,” said Farnell.

Attracting a forensic pathologist willing to work in Spokane required offering a substantial salary, Farnell said.

Aiken and Howard are medical doctors, and both trained at the University of Washington medical school and at the King County Medical Examiner’s Office in Seattle, where they completed the subspecialty fellowship training in forensic pathology. Both are certified by the American Board of Pathology.

The Medical Examiner’s Office is staffed with 10 full-time employees, including the two medical examiners, a chief autopsy assistant, an office assistant and a transcriptionist. Nine part-time deputy medical examiners are also employed.

– JoNel Aleccia

Q: Why do some Spokane city employees earn more than the mayor?

A: Spokane’s city charter says only the chief operating officer can earn more than the mayor.

But Chief Operating Officer John Pilcher, who makes $1,044 a year more than Hession, isn’t the city’s highest-paid employee.

That honor goes to Fire Chief Bobby Williams.

Williams, who has been fire chief for 19 years, was earning the same as Hession until the spring, when the city approved a contract with the union representing fire battalion chiefs. Although Williams isn’t in the union, his pay is tied to increases given the managers below him, so he received a $12,000 raise.

Hession declined to take a raise to keep up with Williams, at least until after the November election. As for taking the raise if he wins, the mayor said he “hasn’t given it much thought.”

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick earns $919 more than Hession.

– Jonathan Brunt