Smart Bombs: Mayor’s salary small part of larger issue

If you ask whether Spokane Mayor David Condon should be the highest-paid city employee, most people would probably answer yes. After all, he is the chief executive officer. But what if you’re asked whether he should make nearly $70,000 a year more than the mayor of Boise, or about $50,000 more than the mayor of Portland, a much larger city?

Hmm. Either those mayors are horribly underpaid, or something is amiss. However, what leaders elsewhere earn isn’t a factor, because in 2011 Spokane voters passed Proposition No. 2, which said the mayor’s salary “shall be equal to the highest-paid city employee.” The only exception is the city administrator, but she will make $47,000 less than the mayor under his budget proposal.

Under Condon’s budget, the highest paid employee would be Police Chief Frank Straub, after the mayor gives him an $8,500 raise to $179,484. A cynic might say that Condon is giving himself a raise when boosting the chief’s pay. But it’s not that simple.

The chief’s pay raises are tied to increases given to the lieutenants and captains. So when the City Council signed off on their union’s pay increases, it was, in essence, boosting the pay of the chief, which boosted the pay of the mayor.

City Councilman Jon Snyder told The Spokesman-Review, “The mayor giving himself such a raise seems a little outrageous.” He added, “To have Spokane’s mayor be paid the same as Seattle’s mayor seems a little out of whack.”

Seattle, which has a larger budget, more employees and a higher cost of living, pays its mayor $182,133 annually. But, again, Condon’s pay is driven by the charter, not the kind of metrics used in the real world.

Councilman Mike Fagan said the proposed raises for the executive team put the city in an awkward position with upcoming labor negotiations. No doubt. But the City Council can amend the charter to add sensible, commonplace salary guidelines, and then ask the voters for their approval – again. At a news conference Friday, Fagan said he may pursue this. The mayor himself can call for this reform, rather than claiming his hands are tied and sending his raises to charities.

The beauty of such a debate is that it could shift the focus where it matters most. It’s not the mayor’s salary that’s a problem for taxpayers and budget writers. It’s the pay of the fire chief, police chief and those further down in the ranks. The chain of events that bumps a mayor’s salary begins with the compensation of public safety employees. Their pay outdistances that of the median Spokane taxpayer, and the gap continues to widen. It represents a far larger share of the budget than the compensation of the executive team.

On Friday, four City Council members decried the mayor’s proposed raises and highlighted budget requests he ignored. OK, so amend the charter and municipal code to sever the link between the mayor’s pay and that of other employees. Then put the spotlight on public safety compensation and explain that if it better reflected what Spokane’s tax base could afford, their entire wish list could be funded, with money left over to hire more police officers and firefighters, and so curtailing the overtime they complained of at the same time.

That discussion would inevitably lead to the difficulty of controlling those wages, because state labor laws favor those unions in arbitration. Then the spotlight can shift to Olympia, as city leaders explain how the metrics of arbitration force Eastern Washington communities to cut police and fire positions and reduce services.

Condon said asking for relief from those poorly weighted comparisons will be a city priority in next year’s Legislature.

Is all this politically daunting? Absolutely. It’s much easier to keep the charter intact and bludgeon the mayor over raises. But remember this: The bigger problem would remain if he worked for free.