07/08/2008: "#3 - Open Questions To Candidates"

The Island Guardian is sponsoring weekly questions to the county council candidates, and will publish their responses; and responses of the voters to their answers.

Question Number Three:
Do you agree with the SJC Salary Commission that Council Members are adequately paid? If not, and if elected, will you ask the Salary Commission to increase the salary level?
(Note: The Salary Commission has set the commissioner’s salary at $34,000 a year; plus full benefits, and provides them with an office with administrative staffing.-Editor)

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Gordy Petersen

The job of Council Member should be about public service. In my opinion it should not be a highly paid position. It is intended to be a part time job not a career. A good public servant will put in as much time as it takes. I will do whatever it takes regardless of compensation because that's the way I am.

I will never support a pay increase for the Council position. I would support a decrease. I think the Town Council of Friday Harbor has a good compensation policy. $85.00 per meeting for up to 4 meetings per month. In my opinion they have attracted top notch candidates for the job. I think they understand the meaning of public service. I am betting that the voters do too. -Gordy Petersen

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Bruce R. Orchid

I have to admit I did not pay much attention to the Salary Commission’s deliberations regarding the salaries of the County Council, however, I do feel it was a good idea to create a commission to explore this issue. I have to, once again, refer to 20 years ago when I was elected to the County Commission, and assumed that responsibility for $34,000 per year. My salary remained the same for my entire four year term, although other commissioners did receive a pay increase (state law forbid a current office holder to vote to increase their own salary), and I abstained from a vote that did increase the remuneration for the other two positions. In fact my “high” salary became a campaign issue in 1992.

I am confident that the current salary level adequately compensates a council member for a part-time schedule. What does disturb me is the fact that a council member has more responsibilities than a part-time position allows. I was at a recent council meeting where Council member Kevin Ranker was asked to outline the “additional” work he had been doing on behalf of San Juan County, especially at the state level ( remember Ranker and Alan Lichter have terms that overlap from the old Commissioner form of government, and both have been paid these past two years for full time positions). Councilman Ranker took this seriously and worked full time. It recently appeared that the council and the County Administrator were leaning towards the hiring of a “lobbyist” or a county employee who would represent the council and report back to them regarding regional and state issues. Time out!

Let’s devise a schedule whereby each council member conducts business outside the county, whether it be membership on the Northwest Regional council, or lobbying state Representatives about state issues that affect the San Juans! This could be two days a month, or more, on a per diem or stipend basis (reimbursement for travel expenses, but no additional pay). Let’s keep this part-time for now; with additional duties performed on a rotating basis, if not the same person attending meetings, at least San Juan County will be represented by an elected official, rather than a paid staff member, or contract employee.

When I started out as the first Executive Director of the Orcas Center, my salary was $16,500/per year in 1986. My job description was, according to one non-profit board member, to do whatever it took to ”Get the Job done.” If elected to the County Council, I will do whatever it takes to get the job done! -Bruce R. Orchid

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Howard Howie Rosenfeld

Adequately paid? YES.

The Salary Commission has stated they are not interested in hearing any requests from individual councilmembers. They want any request to be from the Council.

There is the issue of getting our part-time paid Councilmembers to spend the significant time and effort it takes to participate at the State level? Some think doing this is more important than others. I’ve gone to Olympia and to other meetings where I thought it was valuable time spent. Others and I were effective recently on ferry issues, the oil spill rescue tug, and orca protection. However, I had to close my business whenever I went. I would have been financially better off staying home as none of these meetings were required attendance

PROPOSAL TO THE COUNCIL: I propose we ask the Salary Commission to set an extra, daily salary stipend. Getting the stipend would require a Council vote authorizing the travel. No more than three could use the stipend at one time. Since it would take four votes to authorize, no junkets would be possible. The stipend could not be used for those functions the whole Council is expected to attend, even if only three or less attended. Examples are the yearly Legislative Rally, WASC Conferences, and Island Trust meetings. This way it would only be used for those purposes the Council thought was important beyond what we normally do. The Salary Commission should also set a maximum amount that could be used per year. I suggest $15,000. Not per person, but the total available for all six members. This would cover 65 days at about $225 per day, an amount I think adequate. Members would also get County per diem and normal travel expenses, both of which we currently receive. -Howard “Howie” Rosenfeld

This alternative is far cheaper than hiring a lobbyist or utilizing staff. It is not cheaper than “doing nothing”, but that will put us at a disadvantage to other counties. Most of them are quite active. And with our small voter base we are all too easily ignored. -Howard Howie Rosenfeld

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Lisa Guard

The duty of the County Council as designed by the Charter is to be legislative, where as before the three County Commissioners had full charge. This being the case, the duties of the County Council members are now reduced to half time with six representatives instead of three. The SJC Salary Commission is made up of 10 members of the community, appointed to oversee the salaries. Currently looking on it seems that the current salary is in step with its duties. One should also keep in mind that holding a position in the County Council is for the purpose of contributing and giving back to our community. - Lisa Guard

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Richard Fralick

The San Juan County Charter, approved by the voters in November 2005, provided for a ten member Citizens’ Salary Commission to review and set the salaries for all of the elected county officials including the six county council members. This Commission uses comparable job and salary data to make its determinations. Doing such comparative work is difficult as there are no employment situations exactly like the San Juan County council positions. However, in the exercise of its best judgment based upon an investigative analysis, the Commission set the salary for a county council member at approximately $34,000/year plus full benefits.

Looking at other government entities can add some color to the county council compensation package for San Juan County (a charter county, population 15,000; annual budget $ 53.4 million; full time county administrator). Currently, Whatcom County (a charter county, population 188,000; annual budget $162 million; full time county administrator) provides each part time council member with a salary of $18,000/year plus full benefits, and the City of Mercer Island (municipal government, population 22,000; annual budget $54 million; full time city manager) pays each part time council member a salary of $2,400/year with no benefits.

Based upon these comparisons, I suggest that our county council members are generously compensated. If elected, I would ask the Salary Commission, when reviewing the compensation paid to county council members, to take into consideration the comparisons above, and determine if the level of compensation has been appropriately set.

Salaries should be set at a level to reflect that a county council member holds a part time position with the primary responsibility of the council being to enact laws and policies, letting the county administrator run the day-to-day operations of county government. The ultimate decision of county council compensation rests with the Salary Commission. I do not believe that it is appropriate for an elected county council member to lobby the Salary Commission to either raise or lower his or her own salary. -Richard Fralick

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Fay Chaffee
Regarding the salary for the County Council, I believe the current level is appropriate. The responsibilities of the office are not meant to be full-time, as the current salary level reflects. -Fay Chaffee

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Alan Lichter

If one thinks in terms of compensating individuals for professional work, there's no doubt that new Councilmembers' salaries are much too low: the so-called part-time work schedule of Councilmembers is laughable, since most of us work upwards of 40 hours each week. The notion of the Freeholders--that a County Administrator would relieve a good deal of the work done by legislators--is accurate insofar as the Administrator now deals with department heads and all administrative functions. But the legislative functions, involving a vast number of issues, must still be dealt with by the Council, which means two official meetings each week, then many outside meetings, sub-committee work, appointments with other officials and agencies and constituents, telephone calls, and emails.

If I'm re-elected, I'll try to establish a different way of viewing and compensating Councilmembers' work. A time/performance- based system may have some merit: why not provide incentives for achievement, or for extra time and travel related to the work? We need, to use one example, councilmember presence in Olympia during legislative sessions; should this not receive compensation? Or participation at conferences and meetings outside the county?

I believe that, in a professional context, we ultimately get what we pay for. If we want quality work, good research, and informed decision-making, we need to match salary with expectations. -Alan Lichter

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Lovel Pratt

I agree with the SJC Salary Commission's determination of a half-time salary for half-time Council Members.

I think that it is essential that our elected officials work with our State Legislature on county issues -such as ferry transportation - that must be addressed at the state level, and that County Councilors should be compensated for trips to Olympia. However, I have pledged to go to Olympia at least once a month when the legislature is in session, regardless of compensation. -Lovel Pratt

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. Daniel Miller

Yes, since this is a part time position I agree that they are adequately paid. Also one of the Ideas of moving to the new county council system was to save money, so no I will not ask the Salary Commission to increase the salary level. -Daniel Miller

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Mindy Kayl

Failed to respond
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( Question Number One
Question Number Two