EVERETT — A dispute over the pay of Everett City Council members and the mayor is being reviewed by an outside legal expert.
Everett City Council members hired recently appointed state Appellate Court Judge J. Robert Leach to determine whether the council and mayor are owed a combined $17,138 in back pay.
“It takes the politics out of it,” said City Councilman Mark Olson who led a vote to hire Leach.
Last month, Olson forced a controversial vote to support back pay for elected officials.
The council passed his resolution 4-3, but the city attorney’s office suspended the measure pending legal review. By hiring Leach, the council voted to take the compensation dispute out of the city attorney’s hands.
Leach will bill the city $250 an hour for his review of the charter and salary review decision. He said he will complete his analysis by Feb. 28, before he takes the bench.
Olson argued that pay raises for elected officials should have taken effect more than six months ago. Instead, the raises went into effect Jan. 1.
He pushed for the resolution after complaining that Everett City Attorney Ned Johnston was moving too slowly to answer his questions about the council’s pay.
Mayor Ray Stephanson, who has said he will not accept nearly $6,000 that may be owed to him, said it was inappropriate for the council to vote on its own pay schedule.
Each council member could receive about $1,400, and Brenda Stonecipher, last year’s council president, could get about $3,100 in back pay. Stonecipher voted against back pay.
The compensation question hinges on whether the Citizens’ Commission on Salaries of Elected Officials had the discretion to set the effective date for salary changes.
Olson, an attorney who helped write the section of the city charter that created the salary commission before he was on the council, said the effective date is clearly set by the charter.
The salary commission, which meets every two years to set salaries for seven City Council members, the council president, the mayor and two municipal court judges, approved raises in April but set the day for them go into effect as Jan. 1.
The commission voted to increase the salary of council members from $21,900 a year to $24,000, the council president from $25,500 to $31,200, and the mayor from $133,776 to $141,500, plus annual adjustments for inflation.
The commission also set the salaries of Municipal Court judges to $141,710, the same as Washington state District Court judges.
Leach, who was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Chris Gregoire last month, has practiced law in the area for more than 30 years. Some of his case work includes legal representation for the city of Everett as a partner with the Everett law firm Anderson Hunter.
The council voted 6-0 to accept Leach’s decision and to use it as a guide for future salary commissions.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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