Raising Lewis County elected officials’ salaries proved contentious in 2020. Now, commissioners aim to depoliticize the issue, likely by dissolving the citizen-led salary commission, whose pay raise recommendations were originally denied last year during the pandemic.
Back then, the group recommended a 10% salary increase. And while county commissioners were legally obligated to accept it, they initially voted 2-1 to deny the same increase to other elected officials, citing pandemic-induced economic distress.
When the county’s budget began looking rosier, the pay bump was approved. But by then, the issue had elicited criticism on all sides, with some arguing the increases were long-overdue cost-of-living adjustments caught in a political crossfire, others framing them as inappropriate, and some criticizing commissioners for creating the issue in the middle of an election cycle.
“We saw how it unfolded last fall,” first-term Commissioner Sean Swope said earlier this year. “And we just don’t want that.”
This week, an alternative crystalized. The idea is to link elected officials’ salaries to superior court judges’ compensation, which is largely dictated by the state.
“I feel confident this is the right way to go. Because we’re saving staff time, which is money, (by) just saying that we’re going to use the superior court algorithm in order to determine raises,” Swope said last week. “We’re not allowing it to be a political football anymore … 12 other counties have adopted the same process, which has worked in those counties.”
Commissioner Lindsey Pollock also said last year “was basically a disaster.”
Even so, she expressed concern with tying a local decision to the state. It’s better to have local control, she said Wednesday, “as opposed to being tied to whatever the state wants to do.”
“I see the ease,” she noted. “But is that our job? Is it our job to pass that on to the state?”
According to Prosecuting Attorney Jonathan Meyer, the new proposal could actually enable more local control than keeping the salary commission would. Last year, Meyer critiqued then-commissioners for vowing to donate their own 10% pay bump, saying they didn’t trust other electeds to do the same.
This week, he told commissioners that even if superior court judges see a massive pay bump, the county could still back up and prevent those from taking effect locally.
“If you tie to a superior court judge, their raises don’t go into effect immediately, and so you have the opportunity to review those, determine what the viability of the county is,” and then make a decision, Meyer said. “While I’m hesitant to give anybody in Olympia control over anything in my life, I think this actually gives more local control to Lewis County.”
Lewis County Treasurer Arny Davis — whose base salary is $82,624 a year — said he supports the new proposal since it “takes politicization out.”
The median household income in Lewis County is $53,484, according to Census data.
County Assessor Dianne Dorey, who also makes around $82,624, agreed with Davis. On Wednesday, she took the time to critique what she described as a stagnated salary. Last year’s increase was the first cost-of-living adjustment for several elected positions since 2014.
“I lived for the last 23 years with uncertainty about a salary. I’ve absorbed the cost-of-living for up to six years at a time,” she said. “When I’m watching other people in the county move above and beyond, including your own staff, it’s a little disheartening and it’s a little bit disrespectful.”
Dorey said she sometimes feels “disenfranchised,” and pointed to similar counties in Washington, where she’s “dead last in pay.”
“Grays Harbor County, which is economically devastated, and the assessor there still makes more than me,” she said.
Dorey isn’t the only county employee who’s raised concern about underpayment.
Coroner Warren McLeod — who last year said he didn’t want a raise considering his deputies’ low pay grade — is still advocating for raises for his staff.
The coroner’s office’s staff — currently categorized as “casual help” — work on-call and, according to McLeod, handle 75% of the office’s calls, yet only make $14 to $16 per hour.
