WHITE SALMON — The White Salmon City Council agreed to an increase in the salaries of all elected officials, with a raise for the mayor effective almost immediately, and a raise for councilors effective following the next election for each position.
Councilors unanimously approved the changes to the ordinance for elected officials’ salaries, raising the mayor’s salary from $655 to $2,000 per month, and councilors from a rate of $83 per meeting, effectively $166 per month, to a flat salary of $225 per month.
Approval of the ordinance will allow the mayor’s salary to go into effect five days following publication, while council salary changes will go into effect following the next election for each council position.
Mayor Marla Keethler first requested the Personnel and Finance Committee explore potential salary increases in July. She said at last week’s meeting that the purpose behind raising salaries to was to incentivize participation in local government.
“In recent years, we’ve actually had a few council vacancies where it’s happened outside of elections. And so, in conversations trying to encourage people to run, this was something that had come up,” Keethler said. “I do think as we’re trying to address issues about having a government that’s more representative of the community, the amount of compensation does factor in for many people. I think to not account for how we’re compensating people’s time can unintentionally exclude people who maybe can’t give time freely or need compensation to somewhat reflect the hours they’re giving on effort like working in their local government.”
Personnel and Finance Chair Jason Hartmann added that the budget could withstand it “without too much issue."
“I think it’s clear that the mayor position is, number one, extremely valuable to our city. But number two, it’s more work than what was being compensated in the previous arrangement… I understand the the amount of work that’s being put in at the city level or at the at the mayor level. To me, it was a no brainer,” Hartmann said.
He added that current councilors would have to run again to see an increase in pay: “Obviously none of us are doing it for the money, but the goal is to try to encourage other people, to whom money may be a bigger factor, to run.”
City staff compiled a list of elected officials’ salaries from various cities in Washington, which shows a range from $0 pay to $3,000 per month for a mayor’s salary out of 32 cities with a population of less than 5,000. For an idea of what cities local to the Gorge pay their elected officials, the list shows that the City of Goldendale pays their mayor $1,000 per month and their councilors $50 per meeting, while the city of Stevenson pays their mayor $600 per month and their councilors $300 per month. The full list is online at white-salmon.net.
During a brief discussion among council, Councilor Patty Fink asked more specifically about the implications of the 2023 budget, to which Mayor Marla Keethler explained that she requested the personnel and finance committee review the proposal in July and that it just now reached council. She said the 2023 budget accounts for the increase in the mayor’s salary, adding that the council can set their own date for when the salary increase becomes effective.
Clarifying, city attorney Kenneth Woodrich said that the city council can raise the mayor’s salary in the middle of the term because the mayor is ultimately sperate from the voting process.
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