The seven Kent City Council members will get a 2.5 percent pay hike this year and then a 2.5 percent increase each January under a plan approved last week by the city’s Independent Salary Commission.
The current part-time council pay of $13,752 in Kent ranks fourth out of the comparable cities of Everett, Bellingham, Federal Way and Auburn. The pay jump of $343 this year will increase the annual amount to $14,095 and put Kent third, just ahead of Federal Way at $13,800 per year. Another hike in January raises the pay to $14,448.
Commissioners Greg Haffner, Mizanur Rahman, Mason Hudson and Kelly Beckley voted for the pay hike. Nobody opposed it. Coreen Jones had an excused absence.
The commission earlier this month on a 4-1 vote approved a 35 percent pay hike to $138,000 per year for Mayor Suzette Cooke. She now makes $102,192 per year.
Cooke appointed the five salary commission members and the council approved the appointments earlier this spring. The council formerly had the power to give itself and the mayor pay increases, but hasn’t done so for at least 10 years.
Committee members also approved a 2.5 percent immediate increase and a 2.5 percent annual increase for the council president, who currently gets $14,496 per year. The council president serves a two-year term and is chosen by the other council members. Voters elect council members to four-year terms.
Commissioners decided not to raise council pay as high as Everett and Bellingham, where the members make more than $24,000 per year.
“We felt the salaries paid by Bellingham and Everett, both at more than $24,000 per year for their council members, were too far out of line with the other cities,” Haffner said in an email. “Kent’s council member salaries are already close to Federal Way and more than Auburn and Renton.”
Haffner said that Auburn, Renton and Federal Way do not provide medical/dental/vision benefits to their council members, and of those only Renton provides such benefits to its council president. Kent offers such benefits to its council members.
“Overall, we felt the existing salaries for Kent’s council members and president were appropriate, but that 10 years without an increase was too long,” Haffner said. “Accordingly, we unanimously agreed (though one member was absent) that cost of living adjustments of 2.5 percent were appropriate immediately and for each year hereafter.”
The commission will file its salary schedule with the city clerk. Once that becomes official, a resident can within 30 days file a referendum petition to put the pay increase for the mayor and council to the voters if enough signatures of registered voters can be submitted. The salary hikes then would not go into effect unless approved at the referendum election.
Because the commission approved annual pay boosts, the council will take steps to disband the commission but keep the salary schedule established by the group.
• City Council annual salaries (part-time jobs)
Everett: $26,964
Bellingham: $24,108
Federal Way: $13,800
Kent: $13,752 (new rate to be $14,095)
Auburn: $11,700
Renton: $11,400
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