Elected officials receive raise

During Island County’s budget request process, very few things are changing, with the exception of salaries.

Island County Commissioners, along with other elected officials, will receive a 5-percent raise as the result of a 1994 resolution, which gives them the raise every other year instead of annually like other county employees.

Each county commissioner is slated to make $71,198.35 beginning next year. This pales to the prosecuting attorney’s salary of $88,997.93, which is 125 percent of a commissioner’s salary.

According to the 1994 resolution, it was the commissioners’ goal to have elected officials’ salaries fair and representative of their responsibilities.

An update in 2001 gave other elected officials an additional 5 percent raise. This means that the auditor, assessor, treasurer, clerk and coroner all make 90 percent of a commissioner’s salary. The sheriff makes 100 percent.

Island County’s Budget Director Elaine Marlow said that union and non-represented employees of the county automatically receive a 2 percent cost of living increase annually.

“We try to keep in line with inflation for union contracts,” she said.

In 2003, inflation fell below the 2 percent mark, but employees still received a 2 percent raise. In some years, the county has been able to give up to a 3.75 percent increase, Marlow said.

For 2005, unionized and non-represented employees will receive only the 2-percent raise, Marlow said.

You can reach News-Times reporter Eric Berto at eberto@whidbeynewstimes.com

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