A citizen commission voted Tuesday to recommend 7 percent salary increases for most county-level elected officials as well as a 10 percent raise for the sheriff in 2022 to “catch up” after freezing pay rates last year due to the financial upheaval of the pandemic.
The county Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials meets annually to discuss and set pay rates for public officials for the following year. The commission is made up of unpaid volunteers representing various regional interests.
Commission Chairman Darren Jones said Tuesday evening that the group makes recommendations based on the salaries paid to officials in several comparable counties across the state.
Some other counties continued with public official pay raises last year, which put Whitman County salaries behind some others in the region. He said the Whitman County commissioners now rank in the 85th percentile of comparable official salaries.
“If the other counties gave raises and we didn’t,” he said, “that would definitely bump our averages down.”
Jones said the commission has traditionally given cost-of-living raises of about 3 percent in odd numbered years and made more market-based adjustments in even years.
He initially recommended sticking to a cost of living increase. Other members pushed for larger raises this year to avoid the budget impact of making significant salary adjustments in future years.
“With COVID, we’ve asked a lot of our public service employees,” commission member Darren Alred said, suggesting raises of 7 to 10 percent would help retain elected officials.
In discussions of potential salary increases, Jones noted that rank-and-file county employees had received raises of between 1 and 5 percent. The average employee raise this year came in at about 2 percent.
“I think 2 percent is too low, but what’s too high?” he asked.
After looking up the salaries of the police chief in Pullman, the members quickly agreed to a 10 percent raise for Sheriff Brett Myers. They noted the sheriff’s significant role in countywide public safety issues and the high demand for law enforcement officers throughout the state.
“The salary that’s set for him is low,” Jones said with support from several other members.
Alred argued there should be significant room for advancement between deputy salaries and the sheriff’s position. The 10 percent raise would bump the sheriff’s salary to about $118,000 next year — an increase of about $11,000 a year.
A couple members suggested 6 percent raises for other officials to basically double the typical cost of living increase to cover last year and this year. Commission member Jami Gecas and Alred pushed for larger increases. The 7 percent increase amounts to about $5,000 more a year for each official.
“We always seem to be behind,” Gecas said. “I think 7 [percent] will get us to where we want to be.”
The commission briefly considered weighing different salary rates for the various positions, but did not discuss separating those out other than the recommended larger raise for the sheriff.
Members voted unanimously to recommend the 7 percent raises for most officials and a 10 percent raise for the sheriff after about an hour of discussion.
The salary commission was established in 2005 to remove officials from the process of setting their own pay. The 10-person group sets the pay for the auditor, the assessor, the three county commissioners, the county clerk, treasurer, coroner, the prosecuting attorney and the sheriff. Part of the prosecutor salary is also paid by the state. Members are selected by the county commissioners.
Many county officials’ salaries have doubled in the 16 years since the commission was formed. Explore data provided by the county on historic official salary levels, comparable county salaries and recent county employee raises below.
The 2022 pay rate recommendations will be forwarded to the Auditor’s Office and state law mandates county officials must adopt the salary levels into next year’s budget.
Historic salary data from Whitman County:
Comparable county officials’ salaries:
Recent history of Whitman County employee raises: