PORT ANGELES — Two Clallam County commissioners say they would support a pay freeze for elected officials, and the third said he would consider it.
Commissioners Jim McEntire and Mike Chapman on Monday directed County Administrator Jim Jones to draft a proposal to freeze the pay of eight elected officials — the commissioners, assessor, auditor, community development director, sheriff and treasurer — effective Dec. 31.
New county officeholders who win elections next month would earn the same salaries as the incumbents.
Cost of living raises would become a thing of the past, and annual step increases would be frozen at step 9 of 12 steps.
Commissioner Mike Doherty said he would consider the proposal.
“I don’t have to live with whatever you’re going to end up doing, but I think it will exacerbate morale problems,” said Doherty, who will retire at year’s end after serving four consecutive terms as the West End’s District 3 commissioner, in a Monday work session.
McEntire, who represents the eastern third of the county, had previously proposed significant pay cuts for elected officials as a means of showing leadership in a difficult fiscal environment.
That idea died in an Oct. 6 work session, with Chapman saying it wouldn’t be fair to those who are running for office.
Chapman did support a modest roll-back for elected officeholders and a salary freeze until the Charter Review Commission or a citizen’s advisory panel weighs in.
McEntire’s latest proposal would align the salaries of all three commissioners.
As it stands, Chapman is scheduled to earn $6,181 per month, or $74,172 per year, in 2015.
McEntire would earn $70,596 if no action is taken.
The winner of the District 3 commissioners’ race between Port Angeles Democrat Sissi Bruch and Bill Peach would earn $67,188 in 2015 under the status quo.
“There’s something not right about one commissioner making $600 a month more than another,” Chapman said.
“So I do like the idea of the three commissioners just making the same salary.”
Clallam is the only county in the state that has step increases for its elected officials.
“The rest of the counties have gone completely away from that,” Jones told the board.
“It probably doesn’t make sense. A person is elected to a position, they’re doing a position, they ought to be paid at a level that the position is, regardless of whether they’ve got four years of experience or not.”
After the meeting, Jones said he would bring a proposal to the board next week that freezes elected officials’ salaries at step 9.
All three commissioners would earn $6,089 per month, or $73,068 per year, under the proposal.
The assessor, auditor, community development director and treasurer would earn $76,764 per year, and the sheriff would earn $96,268.
Doherty said he had “a lot of questions” about the proposal, and raised a broader issue of county spending in the context of a 2013 investigative report into employee complaints against Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller.
Doherty has repeatedly taken his fellow commissioners to task, saying they have not followed up on a June 2013 report by former FBI investigator Ken Bauman that alleged that Roark Miller backdated a building permit, ordered staff to destroy documents, retaliated against employees and harmed morale, among other things.
“This board, by condoning a new low level of behavior of a county employee, is wasting a lot of money,” Doherty said.
“And the morale problem, a lot of it comes out of that report. The board had evidence in front of it of serious mismanagement, possibly criminal activity — although the prosecuting attorney, if you read the letters, kind of discounted that.”
Doherty continued: “When board members won’t even read the report and talk about it in public after paying at least $82,000 plus staff time, particularly in the [prosecuting] attorney’s office and DCD office, it makes a lot of this [salary discussion] neutral if the argument is all about saving taxpayers’ money.”
The state Attorney General’s Office declined to recommend the filing of any charges against Roark Miller.
Chapman countered that he has read the DCD report.
“I have no role,” Chapman told Doherty.
“I am not a prosecutor and I’m not an attorney general. I can’t bring charges. I can’t do anything.
“The authorities above me said we’re not going to take action.”
Chapman brought the conversation back to elected officials’ pay, noting that he would be taking the largest cut “out of a sense of fairness for the new District 3 commissioner, more than anything.”
“I just would not be able to live with myself making $600 [per month] more than the District 3 commissioner, whoever wins,” he said.
“I have no stake in who wins. I just don’t think that’s fair.”
He added: “I’ll write a check back to the county if we don’t pass something.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
