Your money, their salaries

In fire stations and police stations, school hallways and city halls, the talk this summer will be about something almost unheard of: pay freezes.

But a series of records requests by The Columbian show that as the economic storm clouds gathered last year, almost every government agency in Clark County allowed most workers' pay to keep climbing, often rapidly.

Top-paid public workers got an average raise of 5 percent in the year preceding Feb. 1, the records show, almost twice the most recent local inflation rate of 2.7 percent.

Numbers like that add up. At least 100 public servants in Clark County — from elementary school principals to fire battalion chiefs to the manager of the electric utility's repair trucks — now have base salaries above $100,000.

In the booming 1990s, public workers' raises fell far behind the private sector and still haven't caught up. But since 2001, as the median private worker's buying power has shrunk, local public workers have enjoyed year after year of healthy raises.

Starting today, The Columbian is giving taxpayers a new way to watch.

At columbian.com/datacenter, anyone can now track the annual salaries and raises of 864 current and former public employees at 39 separate locally run agencies, a total payroll worth $66 million.

It's a free, searchable, sortable record of the 20 top-paid employees, as of Feb. 1, for every significant government body in the county.

The released records show how even the few agencies that froze managers' salaries last year — notably Clark County, the City of Vancouver, the Fort Vancouver library district, the local 911 agency — didn't persuade their unions to make the same sacrifice.

The database also shows the big disparities between agencies of different sizes. Fighting fires in Hockinson, for example, pays 23 percent less than fighting fires in Hazel Dell.

And it shows how distant the topmost public salaries are from that of the median local worker, who earned $31,582 in 2007.

Three public workers now make more than $200,000. Washington State University Vancouver Chancellor Hal Dengerink tops the list at $221,785.

He's been followed this year by Vancouver Public Schools Superintendent Steven Webb and Clark Public Utilities CEO Wayne Nelson.

Vancouver Public Schools spokeswoman Kris Sork noted that base salaries don't tell the whole story.

"Our board has always believed that a superintendent's compensation should be transparent," Sork said. "(Webb) doesn't have the additional perks that some other superintendents have."

Due to other benefits in their contracts, such as vacation cash-outs or vehicle reimbursements, the heads of the Evergreen and Battle Ground school districts take home tens of thousands more than their base pay.

Dengerink didn't respond last week to a request for comment.

Local governments have 40 other employees whose salaries exceed $140,000, including top-ranking officials at Vancouver, the Port of Vancouver, Clark County, and the big school and utility districts.

Of the top 40, only two are women: Educational Service District 112 Superintendent Twyla Barnes, at $194,077; and Battle Ground Public Schools Superintendent Shonny Bria, at $157,695.

The biggest executive raise went to a woman, though: Port of Woodland Director Erica Rainford, whose salary jumped 16.2 percent to $58,100.

Rainford, who was hired Feb. 1, 2008, remains by far the lowest-paid local port director. Most of that raise, she said, came at the end of her six-month probationary period.

"Most of my peers are men," Rainford said. "When I go to port functions, it's kind of funny."

But Rainford, 26, said she's never felt limited by gender.

"Maybe that's because of my generation," she said.

And maybe women don't tend to seek high-profile positions, Rainford added.

Speaking of which: where do politicians fall on the list?

They don't. The only elected officials to make the top 20 in his or her agency are the county's 16 judges and Prosecuting Attorney Art Curtis.

In local government, the big money is behind the scenes.

How much would you pay to not have a boss?

For Sheriff Garry Lucas, try $41,196.

That's how far Lucas, at $97,224 a year, sits behind Vancouver Police Chief Cliff Cook, salary $138,420 — even though Lucas supervises a bigger department that includes the local jail.

Strictly speaking, Lucas reports directly to the voters every four years, while Cook has two layers of management between him and the public.

The difference in their salaries betrays a larger pattern: If you're looking for big money in the public sector, a lower profile doesn't hurt.

Just look at local fire districts, where commissioners are often former firefighters and where 18 top employees landed double-digit raises in 2008.

Look at Educational Service District 112, the six-county agency based in Vancouver that coordinates local school districts, whose superintendent is the county's No. 4 public worker.

Or look at Clark Public Utilities.

The electricity and water district, whose three elected commissioners serve six-year terms and regularly run unopposed, rarely makes front-page news. But the top 20 workers in this 344-person agency have some of the highest salaries in the county.

CEO Wayne Nelson is the third-highest-paid public worker in the county, at $202,228. Even the district's No. 20 employee, water quality manager Steven Prather, makes $113,126.

Mick Shutt, the district's spokesman, said the district pays well for a simple reason: you get what you pay for. Six of the top 20 have professional degrees.

"They're critical jobs," he said. "One of them is our manager of the River Road generating plant. It's a $120 million plant, and if it goes down, there's millions and millions of dollars at stake every day."

But can utility customers — who have few other choices to obtain power and water — be sure their investment is paying off?

"How about if I hold up a J.D. Power trophy for the highest customer satisfaction among midsize electric utilities in the western United States?" Shutt said.

It's true; Clark Public Utilities won it in 2008.

Operating and maintenance costs per customer, $305 per year, are routinely the lowest in the state, Shutt said. Outage time per customer is less than half the average for large Western utilities.

"I think if you look at the history of this utility, you'll see that it's extremely well-managed and efficient," Shutt said.

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.