Commission approves Kent mayor’s pay hike to $240,000 per year

Published 2:07 pm Friday, February 20, 2026

Kent Mayor Dana Ralph will get a 9.2% pay increase this year to boost her annual salary to $240,000, which is more than the Washington governor and Seattle mayor make but less than the Renton mayor.

Despite the objections of two residents who spoke at its Feb. 19 meeting, the city’s three-member Independent Salary Commission unanimously approved the pay hike. Ralph currently makes $219,720 annually. The pay increase will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2026.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson makes $230,000 per year, according to The Seattle Times. Gov. Bob Ferguson receives $218,744 annually, which will go up to $234,275 on July 1, according to the Washington Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials (state government salaries).

Renton Mayor Armondo Pavone, who makes $251,615 per year, became the focus for the salary commission to raise the pay for Ralph. The three commissioners discussed during a Feb. 5 meeting when they came up with the proposed hike for Ralph that the city of Renton ties its mayor’s salary to the pay of city department directors.

The Kent committee decided to do the same thing.

“It was based on the directors’ salaries,” Chair Julie Miller said during an interview after the Feb. 19 meeting at the city Centennial Center. “There are seven in the city and she was under (their pay) by 14% (and now it will be) similar. That’s what the city of Renton is doing and other cities.”

Kent city department heads make $20,943 per month in 2026 or $251,316 per year, according to Finance Director Paula Painter. Ralph will make $20,000 per month. The Renton mayor and city department director make the same pay of $20,968 per month, according to city documents.

Kent’s salary commission had looked at mayor’s salaries in comparable cities in the past few years but had not looked at comparing what the mayor makes to what city department leaders make, Miller said.

Painter, a staff member for the salary commission who provides salary comparison from other cities, said she shared with the members that Renton aligns its mayor’s salary to the top end of their directors’ salaries.

With the latest increase, Ralph’s pay has jumped from $168,141 per year during the salary commission’s initial meeting in 2023 to $240,000 annually, an increase of 42.7% in just four years. She is in the first year of her third four-year term.

Against pay hike

Two residents who attended the Feb. 19 salary commission meeting opposed the pay increase for the mayor.

Gwen Allen-Carston, executive director of the Kent Black Action Commission, said she came to the meeting as a representative of the Black African American community.

“It is very upsetting in these days and times to see the mayor’s salary increasing at this juncture of the year,” said Allen-Carston, who has lived in Kent since 2004. “No one’s showing us or proving to us why the mayor needs a raise like this. There’s so many other things that need attention to and need dollars for. At this time, I don’t believe it’s necessary for her to have this huge jump in her salary, 9.2% is huge for anyone’s salary.

Allen-Carston continued during her three minutes allowed for public comment.

“I’m here to give voice to the people who cannot be in this room,” she said. “I’ve spoken to people in my community and most folks are not in agreement with this. Give us some answers, give us some reasons why.”

Allen-Carston suggested the money could be used for pothole repairs, food services or homeless shelters.

“That’s a lot of money and we could be using that money for a lot of different areas in our city,” Allen-Carston said.

Commissioners didn’t share the reasons for the pay increase during the meeting. When it came time for deliberation and adoption, they approved the new pay with a 3-0 vote and no comments. Miller said during an interview after the meeting that they discussed the reasons at their earlier meeting. That was open to the public but no public comment was allowed at that meeting. Public comment was only allowed at the Feb. 19 meeting when the commission already had approved a proposal for the pay increase.

Amanda Kerstetter, who said she lives in downtown Kent and works to provide homeless outreach services in the city, also opposed the pay boost.

“There are many, many resources this city is lacking and it’s very upsetting that we are looking at an increase in simply the mayor’s salary,” Kerstetter said. “I see suffering every day in Kent and I see nothing getting better, I am only seeing things get worse. The amount of hopelessness that people are feeling is extraordinary. I’ve worked in many different cities and from what I hear from the people living here in Kent is worse than anywhere else, including Seattle, and people think Seattle is really awful but for folks who are unsheltered or low income there is no hope that things are going to get better.”

Kerstetter said she has completely lost faith in the police department and government that she’s being looked out for.

“I’m a low-income resident and honestly, I could end up on the streets so very easily,” she said. “I’d like to know what the mayor is actually doing to improve the life of folks that are low income and living unsheltered first and foremost before I feel a raise would be appropriate.”

Kerstetter said she prefers to see tax dollars going to services for people who are struggling as well as services for low income youth.

Miller said after the meeting she gets that people were upset at the pay increase.

“I understand people’s comments,” Miller sadi. “There’s a lot of merit to them.”

The commission meets each year to consider pay increases for the mayor and City Council. The three members decided to keep the part-time pay for the City Council president and the other six council members at the same rate in 2026. The council president makes $42,888 annually while the other members make $37,296 per year.

The council voted 5-2 in 2022 to form the Independent Salary Commission to look each year at increasing pay for the mayor and council members, with one of the goals to keep Kent’s pay as high or higher as six comparable cities. The mayor recommends committee members and the council approves them.

The other current members are William Cogswell and Charlie Mitchell.

City staff compiled the salaries of six other cities within King, Pierce and Snohomish counties which use a mayor-council form of government, the same as Kent, to provide salary information to the commission. The selected cities have populations between 75,640 and 140,100. To ensure comparability to cities similar in size to the Kent, the city of Seattle with a population of 816,600 and cities with populations under 45,000 were excluded.

Kent has the largest population of the cities at 140,100, according to city documents. The populations of the other comparable cities are Everett, 114,700; Renton, 109,700; Federal Way, 102,900; Auburn, 90,320; Redmond, 82,380; and Marysville, 75,640.

The Renton and Kent mayors are the highest paid among the cities.

Prior to 2023, the council last had a salary commission in 2015 to review pay of the mayor and council.

Allen-Carston told the salary commission after its vote for the mayor’s pay hike that she disagreed with the process.

“We have 140,000 people in the city and this commission does not speak for the city, it speaks for the mayor, and that is a problem,” Allen-Carston said.