EDMONDS
First, the financial crisis gripped his city. Now, the crisis has taken a $12,000 bite out of Mayor Gary Haakenson’s future paycheck — the second half of the mayor’s promised $24,000 raise.
The raise was promised by the City Council in May 2008, and the first $12,000 was granted July 1 last year. The second half was supposed to come July 1, 2009.
It won’t.
In the face of an increasingly dire financial crisis, the council unanimously approved Feb. 17 a resolution to postpone the second $12,000 by 18 months, to Jan. 1, 2011.
The mayor’s current salary is $113,208 a year. The city’s annual budget is about $65 million.
Postponing Haakenson’s raise is an important symbolic step in trying times, said council president DJ Wilson, who proposed the salary change.
“It sends a message: All things are on the table,” Wilson said. “This year, we will focus like a laser on getting the city of Edmonds on stable financial footing.”
Last week, officials indicated the city might ask voters in November for a $4.5 million levy to fund on-going city operations. If the levy doesn’t pass, cuts in major city services will be needed avoid bankruptcy, officials said.
The mayor said he typically doesn’t comment on his own salary, since it is in the hands of the City Council.
But clearly, he acknowledged, “symbolic steps are important, and I think it’s one they need to take.”
The council granted the mayor’s raise last year in an attempt to raise his salary to the 50th percentile of comparable positions in comparable cities. Before the first raise, his salary was only in the 39th percentile, according to the Edmonds’ Citizen Commission on Compensation of Elected Officials.
Paying at the median is still a good goal, said councilmember Ron Wambolt, who was the loudest supporter of the initial raise.
But, because the city’s budget situation is now dramatically worse than it was a year ago, a non-essential raise is a good expense to cut, Wambolt said.
Councilmember Steve Bernheim has called repeatedly for some action on the mayor’s salary, and briefly clapped his hands after the council’s vote.
Bernheim has asked the city to revoke the mayor’s raise, but that is not legal, city attorney Scott Snyder said Feb. 17.
Once the raise was promised, the city must grant it eventually, Snyder said. However, because the raise hasn’t yet been implemented, the city can legally postpone it, he said.
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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