Port Townsend’s city council has approved a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all non-represented city staff, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase …
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Port Townsend’s city council has approved a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all non-represented city staff, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase for the West Region from July 2023 through June 2024, as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
All non-represented city staff including the city manager received the COLA increase, regardless of how long they have held their positions.
The city manager, a non-represented contract employee, received the COLA in keeping with his employment contract, which stipulates that council-approved salary adjustments for department heads are also applied to him. The city manager’s pay range, determined by the city council during annual evaluations, was not included in the salary schedule or the 2025 budget.
Leader staff filed a public records request for City Manager John Mauro’s employment contract, as well as his current salary and benefits package. The Leader received the city manager’s 2022 employment contract, which includes his 2022 base salary of $189,297, but nothing else before the open records request was closed. The Leader also reached out to Mauro directly to ask the amount of his current salary and package but he had not replied by press time.
The newly created position of community services director, which came online this month, pays between $136,685 and $169,490. That person is also eligible for a COLA increase, equal to about $3,000 in base pay.
The city policy is to release ranges of salaries, rather than actual salaries.
Staff may move up steps within the range, based on their annual performance reviews, wrote Jodi Adams, the city’s finance director, in an email.
“Employees can change fairly frequently, which would make our salary schedule outdated or need to be taken to council frequently as changes happen, council would need to re-adopt each month,” Adams wrote. “For all those reasons, it is more efficient to provide a higher level of perspective by giving the range for positions and an FTE count.”
The 2025 salary schedule, approved by the council as part of its 2025 budget in December, did not include a COLA. At that time, the city anticipated determining wage adjustments based on the general government union contract for non-represented employees, which they thought would be finalized in January. With union wage negotiations ongoing, the city’s finance department requested that council approve an updated salary schedule with a 2.8% COLA for non-represented staff.
Once union negotiations are concluded, the salary schedule will be revised to include wage agreements for the unionized employees and brought to the council for approval.
“We can’t retroactively give COLA increases for non-represented staff, so we decided to move forward with non-represented staff before bargaining ended,” wrote Adams. “Since negotiations are still underway, there is no way to know what pay for the represented staff will be increased by until bargaining has been completed.”
Elected officials, including the mayor and council members, did not receive a COLA increase.
The new schedule also reflects a 3% COLA for police staff represented by the Local Union 589, which was negotiated separately from the general government union. The General Government union represents the police department’s administrative staff who will receive the COLA raise once it is finalized.
Other changes to staff and salaries include a newly hired arts and culture coordinator, who will oversee the Creative District, plan and implement programs and events to support the creative sector and serve as a liaison between various city boards. The range for the position is between $65,748 and $81,528. The schedule also reflects an assistant to the city manager, at a cost of $76,111 to $94,379. The position has been listed in the budget for several years with different salary figures. Mauro confirmed in a separate exchange there was no one in that position.
The city expects to add a new civil engineer to the salary schedule soon. The Public Works Department requested the new hire to assist with several grant-funded projects. The engineer’s salary range will be determined based on their experience.