Thurston County judges, prosecuting attorney get 4% raises next month. Here’s why
Thurston County Superior Court judges and Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim will get a 4% raise to $237,460 starting July 1.
The Board of County Commissioners approved the raise for Tunheim last week, keeping him in line with the state-set salary for Superior Court judges.
Tunheim heads an office that prosecutes people accused of committing local misdemeanor and felony crimes. The county’s Superior Court, a state trial court of general jurisdiction, has nine full-time elected judges who decide civil and criminal cases.
Tunheim and Superior Court judges are the highest paid elected officials for Thurston County.
Though the board approved Tunheim’s raise, they do not have as much latitude in deciding his pay as they do with other elected officials. State law ties an elected prosecuting attorney’s salary to a Superior Court judge’s salary, and counties have no control over the salaries for judges.
The state contributes half of the salary for a Superior Court judge toward the salary of the elected prosecuting attorney, according to RCW 36.17.020. The county must pay the remainder of the salary, which must be an “amount that equals or exceeds that contributed by the county in 2008.”
The Washington Citizen’s Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials sets salaries for Superior Court and District Court judges.
The commission adopted its latest two-year salary schedule on May 13 and salaries are set to be adjusted by July 1 each year.
District Court judges will see a 4% salary increase to $226,096 this year followed by a 3% increase to $232,924 in 2026. These judges serve on a court of limited jurisdiction that hears misdemeanors, infractions, civil and small claims, protection orders and name changes.
Superior Court judges will see a 3% increase to $244,631 in 2026. In accordance with state law, Tunheim’s salary will be adjusted then as well.
The board also set salaries for Thurston County Superior Court and District Court commissioners last week.
Following past resolutions, the board must set commissioner salaries at 85% of their respective judge’s salaries. So, the board set the salary for Superior Court commissioners at $201,841 this year and 207,936 in 2026. Meanwhile, District Court commissioners will get $192,181 in 2025 and $197,985 in 2026.
Those salaries are still higher than salaries set for other Thurston County elected officials.
The county commissioners, assessor, auditor, treasurer, clerk and coroner each earn $147,936 a year. Sheriff Derek Sanders gets $182,761 a year.
County commissioners cannot decide their own salaries, but they do get final say on the salaries of other elected county officials. Salaries for this year were set last year.
Salaries for the county commissioners are set by the county’s Citizen’s Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials. That commission also recommends salaries for other elected officials.
Last week, the board also approved changes to the county code that governs the citizen’s commission.
Notably, the county updated the commissioner districts from three to five and reduced the number of available seats on the citizen’s commission from 10 to nine.
Each district must now have one citizen representative who is a registered voter and eligible to vote. These representatives are selected by lot by the county auditor and appointed by the board.
The remaining four seats must be filled by residents of the county. Three of them must have experience in the field of personnel management or in a related field other than organized labor. The fourth member must be selected from organized labor.
Previously, the county required these four seats to be filled with one member from each of the following sectors: business, professional personnel management, legal professional and organized labor.
The citizen’s commission had five vacancies, meaning half its seats were unfilled, before these changes, according to the county website. The commission last met in the fall and is expected to start meeting again in July.
