SNOHOMISH — The City Council is prepared to make Mayor Linda Redmon's salary $30,000 a year, up from $18,000. Five council members came to this consensus at a workshop last week.
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SNOHOMISH — The City Council might increase Mayor Linda Redmon's salary from $18,000 a year as part of budget talks.
Councilwoman Karen Guzak relaunched the idea at last week's council meeting, saying Redmon is doing a good job.
A special one-hour meeting on the topic starts at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10 in the Carnegie Building, 105 Cedar Ave.
The public will be able to give commentsat this meeting in person or onlne and or send written comments in advance, city administrator Heather Thomas said.
The council will be adopting the budget as soon as its Nov. 15 meeting. A final public hearing is that night.
Redmon said at the Nov. 1 council meeting she had no comment.
The council set the salary at $18,000 a year in 2017 and classified the job as a part-time role.
A new survey of comparable mayors found Snohomish’s pay is on the lower end.
The council gets into talking about the mayor’s salary almost annually at council. Last fall’s debate died because of a split-up among council members on how to proceed. Some wanted the city to establish an independent salary commission that sets the salary. Other council members didn’t, because that entrusts public funds with volunteers. This year’s council has three different faces.
Guzak called it good timing to ask about the salary during budget talks. She predicts any salary adjustment would be small to keep up comparably with other area cities.
The council set the salary at $18,000 a year in 2017 as part of preparing for the city’s change to its “strong mayor” format; the 2018 election was a tight race between Guzak and John Kartak. Prior to voters choosing to have an executive mayor, a contracted city manager was the chief executive at City Hall under a “weak mayor” system. The “weak mayor” himself or herself functioned as the council president.
The city’s 2016 mayor’s pay study used a combined list of area executive mayors and non-executive weak mayors together to calculate a median pay rate for cities of similar size to peg $18,000 as fair. During 2016 pay talks, a separate study compiled by a Snohomish resident found that executive mayors in cities about the same size of Snohomish were typically paid between $28,000 to $30,000.
Online Thursday meeting info :
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85385618191
Or call in at (253) 215-8782 and use Meeting ID# 853 8561 8191
