LYNNWOOD – Edmonds Community College President Jack Oharah will receive an extra $20,000 a year in salary and annuities after trustees agreed to a package aimed at keeping him at the Lynnwood campus.
Oharah was recently a finalist to become the president of Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma. He also has been approached to apply for a post in California.
Oharah, who has led EdCC for eight years, will make $160,000 overall, including a $144,000 salary, college officials said. He now makes about $140,000 in salary and annuities.
It amounts to a 14 percent pay increase, said Jack McRae, chairman of the EdCC board. He said Oharah could have made more elsewhere.
“We could not match the pay that Oklahoma was putting out there,” McRae said. “We couldn’t get close to it.”
When it became known that Oharah had applied elsewhere, the EdCC board and president’s office received numerous e-mails from faculty and residents expressing hope that he would stay, McRae said. “I think all the trustees felt we would have trouble finding a president as competent as Jack,” he said.
State law allowed the college board to negotiate the raise once Oharah reached the short-list for another job, McRae said.
Earlier, the board had an independent consulting firm, Advanced Learning Consulting of Seattle, review Oharah’s performance, and the findings mirrored the board’s conclusions, said Susan Kostick, vice president of college relations and advancement.
Oharah was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but said last week he was glad he would be staying.
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