Five Kent residents to decide pay raises for mayor, City Council

Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke and the City Council chose the five residents on Tuesday who will determine in the next few months if the mayor and seven-member council deserve pay increases.

The five, appointed by Cooke and confirmed by the council, will serve on the city’s Independent Salary Commission. The council approved the commission’s formation in March after the proposal came up in a council retreat.

“Council members and the mayor are not to influence these appointees,” Cooke said at the Tuesday meeting. “They will be independent of us operating with staff support from our human resources department. Good luck folks.”

The council passed an ordinance that the five board members would include one person from the faith community, one from the business community, one with human resources expertise and two at-large commissioners.

The members are:

• Greg Haffner (business community representative)

Attorney/partner at Curran Law Firm; Kent Chamber of Commerce member; past president Rotary Club of Kent; pro bono counsel for Kent Downtown Partnership; served on Kent Public Facilities District (ShoWare Center) board and Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.

• Mizanur Rahman (faith community representative)

President, Islamic Center of Kent; volunteer leader for the Bangladeshi community in South King County; senior engineer Solid Waste Division King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks; project manager for new Islamic Center multipurpose building.

• Mason Hudson (human resources expert)

Human resources director at St. Clare Hospital, Lakewood; previously worked as human resources consultant at MultiCare Health System, Tacoma and director of human resources at University of Washington Medical Center; past board member for United Cerebral Palsy.

• Kelly Beckley (at-large representative)

Owner and president of BDP Design LLC, Kent; published author of children’s literature; board member of Jubilee Women’s Center and Kent Downtown Partnership; previously worked as senior marketing executive in real estate and as Frause public relations executive.

• Coreen Jones (at-large representative)

Secretary for Kent Senior Advisory Committee; volunteer at Kent Senior Center Deli Cafe and Full Life Adult Heath Center; retired from Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department; Air Force veteran.

Neither the mayor nor the part-time council has had a pay raise in more than 10 years even though the council had the authority to raise pay.

“I would guess we are going to have to go over all of the facts of the background of the salaries,” Beckley said during an interview after the meeting. “It’s been 10 years, I didn’t realize that. I would like to give them a raise for all that they do but we have a lot of good people on this commission who are going to have a lot of good input. I look forward to working with them and coming up with a good solution.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to learn more about the city council, what they do and what they deserve to be paid,” she said.

Cooke makes $102,192 per year as a full-time mayor. The part-time council members are paid $13,752 per year. The council president, a two-year term, gets $14,496 a year.

Rahman said during an interview that he’s confident the commission can stay independent from the mayor and council as it makes a decision on pay increases.

“I don’t think they will influence us, we should work on our own,” Rahman said. “We work for the population of the city, not just the council and the mayor.”

Cooke suggested last fall during her preliminary budget report to the council a mayor’s pay raise to $133,192 to put the salary more in line with peer cities such as Everett ($158,198), Renton ($134,400), Bellingham ($132,792), Auburn ($126,444) and Federal Way ($112,800), according to 2013 figures compiled by the city.

The council didn’t take any action on Cooke’s proposal.

Rahman said he’s uncertain if pay raises will be given or not.

“We have to look at how things are going with other cities and other mayors,” Rahman said. “If it didn’t happen for the last 10 years, maybe they deserve it or maybe not. It depends on the condition of the city and how much revenue is generated by the city. It depends on many factors, so to tell you now that there will be some increment or not, it will take time for the commission to work on it.”

Committee members are expected to meet at least twice before July 1 and come up with salary figures.

The commission could decide to adjust salaries and benefits and include a fixed annual salary inflation factor. If the board goes that route, the council will take steps to disband it but keep the salary schedule established by the commission.