Leaders cede pay power
Panel will set salaries for Liberty Lake officials
Salaries for Liberty Lake Mayor Wendy Van Orman and City Council members will be set in the future by an independent salary commission.
With Councilman Ryan Romney absent, the council voted unanimously Tuesday to relinquish control over their paychecks.
The issue was controversial in April when Councilman Patrick Jenkins suggested establishing a salary commission as a means of increasing salaries and attracting more candidates in municipal elections. Currently, council members are paid $250 a month and the mayor gets $750.
Some council members worried that increasing their salaries in the middle of a recession was a bad idea. But they warmed to provisions that take salaries entirely out their hands and give citizens the last word.
Under state law, salary increases automatically take effect when salary commissioners file their decisions with the city clerk. However, state law gives citizens 30 days to force a referendum with a petition representing at least 15 percent of the turnout in the previous general election.
Salary decreases also are subject to referendum, but they don’t take effect for incumbents until the officials are re-elected.
One of the original skeptics, Councilman David Crump, said he thought at first that the commission would have only advisory power – leaving council members responsible for any raise the commission recommends.
“I can’t think of a better way to do this than to make it a public and citizen-involved committee,” Crump said Tuesday. “I think it makes it much more objective.”
One of the three salary commissioners would start with a two-year term, but Councilwoman Susan Schuler questioned why the other two would have four-year terms. Jenkins said the four-year terms – the same as for the mayor and council members – would discourage elected officials from appointing new commissioners if they don’t like a decision.
State law says salary commissioners – who are appointed by mayors and confirmed by councils – can’t be dismissed except for “incapacity, incompetence, neglect of duty or malfeasance” – or unless they move out of the city.