Thurston County, here are your elected officials’ salaries for 2020
Salaries for Thurston County’s elected officials in 2020 were finalized this week, adopting those proposed in November by the Thurston County Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.
Those recommendations were the subject of a public hearing Monday. Four citizens spoke against the proposed increases, including current Thurston County Commissioner Gary Edwards.
Edwards testified that he believes, and has testified consistently, that elected officials should retain the same salaries throughout their terms in office. He suggested the commission make salary changes at the end of officials’ terms.
After the hearing — and some impromptu, lively discussion between citizens’ commission members and citizens who testified — the five citizens’ commission members present voted unanimously to set county commissioners’ salaries and to send recommendations for other elected officials’ salaries to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration.
Ruth Elder, who has served as clerk of the citizens’ commission since its inception in 2001, told The Olympian she delivered the county commissioners’ salary schedule directly to the County Auditor Tuesday morning.
Later that day, county commissioners voted 2-1 to set salaries for the seven other elected officials in accordance with the citizens’ commission recommendations, with Edwards voting “no.”
Here’s how much Thurston County’s elected officials will be making in 2020, versus 2019:
At a county commission work session Tuesday morning, Elder gave an historical overview of the citizens’ commission. She explained that the initial commission determined almost every elected official’s salary in Thurston County was 20 percent to 25 percent below the salary for comparable positions in similar counties.
Rather than increase the salaries to fill the gap all at once, she said, the board went back to county commissioners to ask for a proposed county code change so it could revisit the salaries each year. During the recession, Elder said, elected officials requested no increases while the county faced layoffs and the citizens’ commission did not meet for several years. In 2015, it began to meet again and took “a phased-in approach” to increasing salaries.
Starting in 2016, each position has seen a raise of at least 2 percent per year, according to county data. Elected officials do not receive cost-of-living increases unless it’s worked into the citizens’ commission’s recommendations and those recommendations are adopted, Elder said.
The citizens’ commission considered salaries of positions in other counties and the Consumer Price Index in its recommendations for all positions, Elder told The Olympian.
For the Sheriff, the commission also considered that several employees in the Sheriff’s Office are making more than the Sheriff. The prosecuting attorney’s salary is tied to superior court judge’s salaries via state law, and the state pays a portion of it.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
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