Jessie Stensland reports from the Island County Commissioners meeting on Tue., Dec. 10, 2024 for the Whidbey News-Times.
Island County commissioners are changing the salaries for the majority of elected county officials, but the increases won’t go into effect during their current terms in office.
The commissioners had a lively discussion about the reasoning behind the change during a workshop meeting last week and then adopted the resolution Tuesday.
Catherine Reed, director of Human Resources, …said the salaries won’t go into effect until each elected official’s next term. For the District 1 and 2 commissioners — who just won reelection — that will mean the beginning of 2025. For the others, the change won’t happen until 2027.
They Said It
Commissioner Jill Johnson suggested that the commissioners’ pay should be an even higher percentage.
“Yes, there are three of us, but that does not simplify the job,” she said, earning a hearty laugh from Commissioner Melanie Bacon.
The commissioners are responsible for setting and managing the county’s $140 million annual budget, and they directly oversee several of the county’s largest departments. Johnson pointed out that some of the elected officials, by comparison, are managing a single department with a single focus.
“I actually think that wage difference is not representative enough of what this job does,” she said. “Again, I’m concerned also about people thinking that this is like city council, right, like they think this is a part-time job without recognizing that you need CEO skills.”
In addition, Johnson argued that a consideration for the compensation rate should be the uncertainty of elected officials’ jobs since they have to run for office every four years. She said they can’t control their future the way other employees can.
Bacon agreed.
“My hope would be that when I do not run in four years that there would be really quality people who will not feel disincentivized by the pay for this job,” she said, adding that most people qualified for the job would take a pay cut and have to deal with “all the garbage of elections.”
“I would hope in future years really qualified people decide to run for this job,” she added.
Johnson, who admitted she was being snarky, suggested that commissioners should get the same per resident rate of pay as Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright, whose salary was more than doubled by a salary commission earlier this year.
Commissioner Janet St. Clair said she supports the salary changes but that she wants to revisit the issue of travel reimbursement for commissioners. She said driving from her home on Camano Island to Coupeville puts a lot of extra wear and tear on her vehicle, which isn’t fairly compensated by the county.
“I cross three county lines every day,” she said, adding that she puts 35,000 miles on her car a year.
“Before I choose to step down, I would want to make sure we have fair and equitable travel reimbursements,” she added.
