A week after the results of a staff morale survey were released, the Oak Harbor City council unanimously passed a resolution to give a retroactive 2% cost-of-living raise for this year and then another 2% raise for next year to all non-union staff. These raises also apply to to all elected officials.
According to the article, the non-union staff who will get this raise includes “the city administrator, department managers, supervisors, department heads, engineers, administrative assistants, paralegals, and program coordinators.” Mayor Bob Severns, in light of the city council’s recent workshop discussing employee morale, indicated that these increases were one action that could be taken right away to improve morale.
The City Council’s resolution also reduced the percentage of health insurance premiums that all employees have to pay from 25% to 20% starting in January, 2022. Oak Harbor is the only city of it’s size in the entire state that provides health care benefits to the Mayor and and the City Councilmembers.
The pay increases will cost the city $141,000 for 2021 and and additional $289,000 for 2022. The increase to the city for the health care insurance costs is $50,000 per year.
For all the details, see the story by Jessie Stensland in the Whidbey News-Times.
