Lacey City Manager Scott Spence gets a 4.5% raise
A 4.5 percent pay increase for Lacey City Manager Scott Spence was approved by the City Council during its last regular council meeting of the year.
The pay raise, adopted Thursday, will increase his salary for 2022 to $193,325.
In keeping with past practice, the increase was not discussed during the meeting but was approved as part of the consent agenda. Consent agenda items are “considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion and one vote,” the council agenda reads. “There will be no separate discussion of these items.”
City manager and executive director performance reviews and salary increases are typically discussed behind closed doors in executive session.
A letter from Mayor Andy Ryder to Spence, which was attached to Thursday’s agenda, explains that the adjustment to pay was based on “market comparables.”
For example, Olympia City Manager Jay Burney earned $196,950 in 2021 and Port of Olympia Executive Director Sam Gibboney, who received a 3 percent raise for 2022, will earn $191,227.
Burney won’t know if he has received a raise until nearly next year, he told The Olympian.
City of Tumwater administrator John Doan received a 3 percent raise, boosting his salary to $175,833 for 2022, spokeswoman Ann Cook said.
Thurston County manager Ramiro Chavez could not be reached. He made $182,220 in 2020, The Olympian reported.
Lacey has taken some aggressive action to make sure Spence is making comparable pay. In 2020, he earned $162,003. For 2021, he received a 14 percent raise which increased his pay to $185,000.
