Spokane Valley City Council debates pay raise

The Spokane Valley City Council had a lengthy discussion at its most recent meeting about employee raises before a split vote awarded city employees a 3% raise.

Human Resources Manager John Whitehead initially requested raises of 2.5%, saying that the city needs to pay more to retain and recruit qualified employees, particularly in light of recent inflation. Councilman Tim Hattenburg quickly suggested raising that to 3%. “The minimum wage went up 3.4%,” he noted.

Some council members appeared torn between the desire to reward employees and concern about how the city would pay for the raises. Councilman Ben Wick said the city’s staff is wonderful, but a 3% raise would cost the city $420,000 in 2024.

“We do have some amazing individuals at our city,” Wick said. “We definitely want to take care of those.”

At the same time, the city is looking at a large increase in costs related to its park maintenance contract, Wick said.

“We do have to figure out how we can add additional police officers,” he said. “We do have some significant budget pressures. We need to be watching the bottom line.”

Finance Director Chelsie Taylor said the city has enough funds to pay for a 3% raise, but it might affect the amount of money the city has available for one-time projects in the future. Whitehead said changing the increase from 2.5% to 3% would require an additional $70,000.

Councilwoman Brandi Peetz said she wondered if even 3% was enough to make a dent in the inflation that has happened in the last year.

“Is it significant enough, with all of the inflation, to even make a difference?” she said. “This is tough. I love you guys. You guys are amazing. You deserve 10% or more if we could afford it.”

Councilman Arne Woodard said he believes a 3% raise is warranted.

“It starts to take a little bit of pressure off retaining the employees we have and recruiting those that we need,” he said. “There are several vacancies at the moment that are almost impossible to fill.”

Throughout the meeting, there was a steady collection of comments from council members and citizens about how the city should hire more police officers.

Woodard noted that hiring police officers is a process and doesn’t happen overnight. Law enforcement agencies, including the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, have been struggling to hire qualified people in recent years. “We’re not going to get 40 cops next week,” he said. “First of all, there aren’t 40 in the state that you can get. It’s a process. You can’t move tomorrow on it. It takes time.”

Mayor Pam Haley agreed with Woodard’s comments and said the city is working with the Sheriff’s Office to hire more officers in the future. Each officer will cost $150,000, including benefits and equipment.

Haley said a 3% raise would not be enough to bring staff up to the level where they were last year, but it will be close. She noted that the city has had a position open for a year and no one has been hired because other cities pay more.

“We have a very limited number of staff who do a lot of work and I think we need to support them,” Haley said. “I’d love to give you guys more if we could.”

Six council members voted to approve the 3% pay raise, with Wick dissenting.