Island County commissioners clashed with other elected officials who described the pay raises they received Monday as “a slap in the face.”
Commissioners approved a 2 percent raise for elected officials starting new terms, effective Jan. 1. These officials have not received a wage increase since 2009.
Auditor Sheilah Crider asked the commissioners prior to the vote to simply give elected officials the same increases experienced by other county staff and department heads. Non-represented county staff received 2 percent wage increases in September 2013, Jan. 1, 2014, and Jan. 1, 2015.
“We’re asking to be respected in the same manner,” Crider said.
While saying he is grateful that he ran unopposed the last two elections, Sheriff Mark Brown said he fears the reason is because the county doesn’t pay enough.
“In terms of attracting future candidates for this office, compensation is a factor,” Brown said.
Agreeing with the sheriff, Commissioner Aubrey Vaughan said he thinks it’s a disservice to all of Island County when civil servants aren’t paid what they’re worth.
“All these positions require a high degree of skill and to get those people, you have to pay them well,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan conceded later in the meeting, however, that it was a tough budget process and no one got everything they wanted.
Prosecutor Greg Banks said that his argument against the minimal pay increase is not so much about the money but about what it says about the county.
“My concern about the 2 percent, intentional or not, is that it sends a message that elected officials are not worthy or (are) worth less,” Banks said, adding that, in speaking with the other officials, the raise was “a real sense that it was a slap in the face.”
“We met individually and as a group over the last six months, and not once did this come up,” said Commissioner Helen Price Johnson. “Instead, it becomes part of the public hearing.
“We have an obligation to work together. I find it very unfortunate that you see this as a statement on the worthiness of public officials.”
The 2015 raises for the affected officials total just over $11,000, amounting to between $1,000 and $1,500 extra annually, depending on each 2009 rate, which ranges from $70,648 to $86,346.
The prosecutor’s 2009 rate from the county is $52,985, but half his salary is paid by the state Legislature.
Commissioner Jill Johnson said that the commissioners’ priority is first to the constituents, second to county staff and elected officials last. Johnson said the board stretched the budget as far as they could and agreed that the request should have come to them earlier.
“Respectfully, that ship has sailed for 2015,” Johnson said. “I don’t disagree that the elected officials are long overdue for a salary increase. But it’s a choice to be in this occupation and it’s a privilege.”
County Assessor Mary Engle, who attended the meeting but didn’t address the board, said later Monday she agreed with the other elected officials that she was kind of “taken aback” by the commissioners’ terse response to their comments. Engle said she has been discussing the pay raise with the commissioners personally since April.
“It just surprised me,” Engle said. “What (Banks) said was respectful, and he did not say it in an attacking manner.”
