PORT ANGELES — Jim McEntire’s idea to cut salaries of Clallam County’s elected officials failed to gain traction with his two fellow commissioners Monday.
Commissioner Mike Chapman, however, agreed that it makes sense to impose a 5-percent roll-back for most elected officeholders, which non-elected department heads absorbed this year, and to freeze salaries until a citizen’s advisory committee weighs in.
McEntire brought a list of options to the board work session Monday to update a 2008 resolution that established the compensation of the three commissioners, county assessor, auditor, community development director, sheriff and treasurer.
“My purpose today was to just get this onto the table because of my strong belief that we elected officials need to set the tone and lead by example for the fairly difficult fiscal environment that we see, both as far as local revenues go and as far as state and federal budgets go,” McEntire said.
Last month, McEntire floated an idea to align elected officials’ pay to the part-time state Legislature, which would have saved $232,854 from a scheduled $616,033 combined compensation package for the eight elected officials in 2015.
That savings is less than 1 percent of the county’s $31.5 million general fund budget.
McEntire’s own pay would have been reduced from $70,596 to $42,106.
On Monday, McEntire suggested a four-year freeze on salaries “or some slightly-lessened amount of that.”
The state sets the salaries for judges and partially funds the elected prosecuting attorney.
Union-represented county employees would not be subject to the proposed cuts.
As a minimum, McEntire has suggested a halt to annual step increases and cost of living raises for elected officials in addition to “some kind of a haircut.”
Chapman on Monday said the Charter Review Commission should examine elected officials’ pay after the 15-member panel is formed in the November election.
Chapman said it would be too political and “not fair for people running for office” if the three commissioners changed salaries prior to the election.
“It’s all worth looking at, but it’s really bad timing to do it right in the heat of the campaign season,” Chapman said.
Chapman added that the board will likely act on elected official pay as part of the usual budget process.
“If department heads took 5-percent step back, then the electeds next year should do the same,” he said.
Commissioner Mike Doherty suggested there are better ways to make up the money that McEntire’s proposals would save.
“It’s a relatively small amount of revenue in a 30-some-million-dollar budget, so I’d prefer to discuss some of those things before taking this approach,” Doherty said.
Doherty suggested the proposal would hurt morale and keep employees “on edge” out of fear that the cuts would extend from elected officials to non-elected managers.
Under state statute, a county board can form a 10-member citizen’s commission on commissioner salaries.
Such a commission also could make recommendations on other elected officials’ salaries, McEntire said.
Chapman asked Doherty if he would support a pay freeze for elected officials until a citizen’s commission or Charter Review brings back a recommendation.
“Well, I’d actually like to have a longer discussion of other revenue issues,” Doherty said.
“I’d like to better understand if Jim has something else in mind that isn’t on the table today.”
Doherty, a Port Angeles Democrat, said he would be willing to waive the executive privilege and reconstitute a list of ground rules for union negotiating strategies that McEntire brought to a closed-door executive session.
“I would be up for having that be brought public,” Doherty said.
“It’s somewhat logical after this step that there were other steps.”
McEntire, a Sequim Republican, said the executive session on negotiating strategies was “not germane” to elected official pay.
“Well, if the goal is saving money, almost anything should be germane before you change people’s lives who have signed up for public service and/or run for public office, I think,” Doherty said.
“So for instance, small things, when we hired the hearing examiner, you would not explain in public the process you went through in trying to get that person appointed accordingly, and that backfired. You wouldn’t allow a discussion of his superb qualifications.”
Doherty opposed the appointment of Hearing Examiner Mark Nichols earlier this year.
Chapman opposed the appointment of county Prosecuting Attorney William Payne, who is running against Nichols in the Nov. 4 general election.
Rather than cutting salaries of elected officials, Doherty suggested that McEntire cut a check to a worthy service that the county provides.
“If you want to grandstand, that’s great,” McEntire told Doherty.
“You could implement your idea today,” Doherty said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
