Another set of city of Vancouver employees won’t be seeing their pay go up in the near future — but this time they asked for it.
After a set of meetings that included testimony from city councilors repudiating any increase, the Vancouver Salary Review Commission voted to keep the city’s elected officials’ paychecks at their current rate for the next two years.
Mayor Tim Leavitt will continue to earn $2,200 a month; Mayor Pro Tempore Larry Smith gets $2,000; and the rest of the council is paid $1,781 for their part-time public service positions.
Each also may choose to collect an average of $820 a month in health and life insurance and retirement, said Debby Watts, Vancouver’s benefits and compensation supervisor. The salary review commission does not have a say over benefits.
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Of the five councilors who provided written or oral testimony to the commission, all asked that they not get a raise in 2011 and 2012.
“It’s not prudent to be looking at any sort of salary increases when we’re in a budget crisis,” Councilor Bart Hansen said Tuesday.
In 2006, at the urging of five of the seven council members at the time, the commission gave out the first raises in six years: The mayor’s salary went up by 10 percent, to $24,900 a year, and other council members’ pay increased by 32 percent to $19,980.
Voters approved a change in the city’s charter in 1994 to create the Salary Review Commission. Its five citizen members meet every two years to evaluate the mayor and council’s pay, based on population, comparable salaries, testimony and other factors.
Many of the councilors said they spend anywhere from 35 to 50-plus hours a week attending meetings, interacting with constituents, prepping for council meetings and other duties.
Councilor Pat Campbell said he was glad to hear his comrades all asked for no extra money. He said he was one of just two who said the same thing two years ago.
“You could see (the budget problems) coming; we really needed to set an example,” Campbell said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate.”
Leavitt and Councilor Jeanne Stewart did not supply comments to the commission this year. The council cannot change the decision of the citizens’ review commission, which was made in March: The only way the decision can be changed is for Vancouver residents to put the issue before voters through the referendum process, which requires signatures equal to 10 percent of voters in the last city election.
