As it stands now, the Vancouver mayor, mayor pro tem and city councilors could see a 3 percent raise in 2019 and a 2 percent raise in 2020.
That’s the recommendation from Friday’s meeting of the Vancouver Salary Review Commission, tasked with recommending any salary increases or changes for the city council.
Those numbers don’t come as much of a surprise given the commission’s initial discussion at a meeting March 19, when members suggested raises in the 2 to 4 percent range. At the time, though, Chair MarCine Miles was hesitant to move forward with a formal recommendation, citing concerns that the public needed more time to provide input.
Miles remained hesitant at Friday’s meeting, again seeking public input, while other commission members wanted to move forward.
The public will get a chance to comment at the commission’s April 11 meeting, when the commission reviews the ordinance written by city staff. If the five-member commission approves the recommendation at that time, it will then go to the city council for a vote. The council has asked for a final recommendation by May 1.
Initially, the commission was eyeing a raise between 2 and 4 percent each year, but Miles later said that after reviewing questionnaires submitted by the council about their workload, she preferred an annual raise of 5 percent. She said she thought the raise was fair given the work being done by the council and mayor. The mayor currently earns $29,582.16, the mayor pro tem is paid $25,958.40 and council’s salary is $23,362.56.
“It’s not going to result in a huge amount of money, it’s not going to impact the city budget in any significant way, but it is a recognition of the effort that’s gone into this,” Miles said. “I understand that that isn’t going to be something this particular council is going to approve of.”
The rest of the commission preferred either 2 to 3 percent and ultimately supported the 3 percent increase in 2019. Their decision was backed by data compiled by Commissioner Frank L’Amie. He compared Vancouver’s salary rates to those of similar cities and found that Vancouver historically approves raises at a lower rate than other cities. L’Amie also found that Vancouver’s cost per employee and cost per resident for council salary is lower than average.
In further debate by the commission, Miles continued to question how benefits play into the discussion despite the commission having no control over council benefits and repeatedly asked for a motion to open a discussion on the issue. Her request was denied.
But the members also debated whether they should consider the pay based on work done by the council or looking toward the future. Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle asked the commission to look forward.
“Don’t base your decision on Anne McEnerny-Ogle, look to the future of what you might set precedent for,” she said.
Miles asked the mayor if it cost her money to serve the city of Vancouver.
“This is part of my retirement, this is what I have chosen to do,” McEnerny-Ogle said, although she admitted she does spend her salary giving back to the community.
“But that is my choice. And as I look at it, I am building a community for myself, for my family, friends, relatives, and that’s my investment and I made that choice.”
Former Mayor Royce Pollard, who has testified at nearly every salary commission meeting, echoed the mayor’s sentiments.
“Your job is not to reward council members who do a good job, they get elected to do a good job,” Pollard said. “You can’t just freely give away the city’s money because you think someone is a nice person.”
Pollard helped lead a 2016 petition to overturn the commission’s initial recommendation that gave a 117 percent raise to the mayor and a 50 percent raise to council. The petition resulted in a new recommendation of 4 percent in 2017 and 2018.
The commission did largely agree that expectations for the council are expanding and will likely only continue to do so.
“At this point, it think we can all see the writing on the wall that expectations will be increasing and there is a lot more work coming down the way,” said Commissioner Magan Reed. “But I think it’s important to note that our job at this time is to base our decision off what is here and now.”
The commission will meet again from 10 a.m. to noon April 11 to finalize its recommendation.
