Lake Stevens City Council approves full-time mayor benefits

Published 3:51 pm Wednesday, December 9, 2020

LAKE STEVENS — The City Council unanimously approved a benefits package for the full-time Lake Stevens mayor position during its Tuesday night meeting.

The mayor’s yearly salary is $80,000, as decided by the city’s salary commission in October. That pay went into effect for Mayor Brett Gailey on Nov. 19. He is the city’s first full-time mayor.

The benefits package would cost about $36,000. That means the mayor’s salary and benefits would total $116,000.

The benefits include medical, dental and vision coverage, life insurance and a deferred compensation match of up to 5% annual salary.

Some council members have argued that the $80,000 salary is too low for the mayor of the lakeside city, with a population of approximately 34,000, because some other full-time mayors in similarly-sized nearby cities make more.

Council members have asked the salary commission to reconsider the original decision in January.