Kent board begins process to decide on salary hikes for mayor, City Council

Published 12:55 pm Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The salaries paid to mayors and city council members in other cities and a lack of recent pay raises could play a large role in whether the Kent mayor and City Council members get salary hikes.

Kent’s newly formed Independent Salary Commission met for the first time on April 28 to begin talks about whether the mayor and council deserve pay raises and if so, how much should they get. Mayor Suzette Cooke appointed the five board members and the council approved the appointments. The council formerly had the power to give itself and the mayor pay increases, but hasn’t done so for at least 10 years.

“I think the lack of raises over the last 10 years is going to be significant, that really surprised me when I first heard that was the case,” said Greg Haffner, a local attorney and board chairman, during an interview after the meeting.

City staff, from the Human Resources Department, handed out figures about what other comparable cities are paying elected officials. The cities were chosen based on similar populations and government structure, such as run by a mayor rather than a city manager.

The $102,192 per year salary for the Kent mayor ranks as the lowest among Everett, Renton, Auburn, Bellingham and Federal Way. The part-time council pay of $13,752 in Kent ranks fourth out of the six cities.

“It looks like our mayor position is way underpaid compared to other cities but I haven’t looked at the data to see if mayors in other cities have comparable roles to our mayor,” Haffner said.

The commission asked city staff to bring back information for the next meeting about what types of pay increases mayors and councils in other cities have received over the last five years and if any built-in pay raises are included.

If the salary commission decides to give pay increases, the higher pay will go into the city’s budget for next year.

“Once you make that decision it becomes an obligation to go into the budget and we’ll start at that level,” City Finance Director Aaron BeMiller told the board.

If the commission includes an annual salary inflator, the council will disband the board. But if there is no annual established increase, the commission will meet each year to review salaries.

“You are a unique commission out of all of the city’s commissions because your decision has the force of law and is automatically incorporated into the city budget,” said Derek Matheson, city chief administrative officer. “You’re in the driver’s seat. You can consider information from whatever sources you consider relevant.”

If the commission approves pay increases (the city wants a decision by July 1), the ordinance would be subject to a referendum petition, where someone  or a group could gather enough signatures from registered voters in the city to put the salary increase on a ballot measure to determine whether pay hikes should be given.

• Mayor annual salaries (2015)

Everett: $167,028

Renton: $138,545

Auburn: $136,873

Bellingham: $135,444

Federal Way: $115,620

Kent: $102,192

• City Council annual salaries (part-time jobs)

Everett: $26,964

Bellingham: $24,108

Federal Way: $13,800

Kent: $13,752

Auburn: $11,700

Renton: $11,400