Port Townsend City Council should be paid more for what they do.

That’s the view from at least one resident of Port Townsend.

During a recent city council meeting, compensation for councilmembers came up during the public comment period, and some on the council later agreed that those seated at the dais should be paid more.

“A fundamental of democracy is a belief in a citizen legislature at every level of government,” Julia Cochrane wrote to the council ahead of its Feb. 16 meeting. 

“As a member of the public, I am shocked and ashamed that you get such little compensation,” she added.

Cochrane called upon city officials to create a commission or committee to review and propose fair compensation for Port Townsend’s elected officials.

According to the Municipal Research and Services Center, Washington’s Constitution prohibits a legislative body from increasing its salary after an election or during the term of office for those officials who set their own salary.

However, if the city creates a salary commission to review a potential raise, any salary set by the commission may be implemented during the councilmembers’ terms.

Some on the council were receptive to the idea.

“I think we have a serious equity problem with regard to the rate of remuneration of council members,” said Deputy Mayor David Faber. “If we want to have a representative council, where the councilmembers who aren’t independently wealthy can participate fully, then we need to make sure they’re paid more than $4 an hour or whatever it would break down to at the current rate of pay.”

Currently, councilmembers are given $500 per month for the execution of their duties to the city. The mayor gets $750 per month.

Depending on the demands of a given week, councilmembers can be compensated well below the state’s minimum hourly wage of $13.69.

Faber, who works as an attorney with the firm Faber Feinson, said because he is well compensated in his regular job, he can afford to offset any potential loss of income from attending to his duties on the council.

But, Faber added, the council should be representative of the community it serves, irrespective of whether that representative can afford to subsidize his or her income in order to serve.

Faber noted that there is a trend which treats cutting salaries for elected officials as a net positive.

“If we want to attract smart people who want to take time out of their other work life to commit to us civically, it’s the height of foolishness to suggest that we shouldn’t make it a comfortable wage doing that work,” he added.

“If we fail to pay them well, then only the independently wealthy will feel compelled to do the work and that makes the representation fundamentally skewed,” Faber continued. “We have an unsustainable situation with councilmembers right now.”

Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval said even though she wouldn’t be able to reap the fruits of a pay increase for councilmembers, the seeds were still worth planting prior to her departure.

“I have definitely made it a point, given that I am on my way out [and] having served on the council for a number of years, that this really needs to be looked at,” Sandoval said.

“Everybody who is an elected official in this community — county commissioners, port [commissioners], [public utility district commissioners] — get substantially more salary and benefits than the city council does,” she said.

Any serious conversation surrounding compensation cannot be done in a vacuum, Sandoval said, given that increasing the pay of city councilmembers would impact the city’s budget.

“It is not an easy decision to make, because it has to do with the financial sustainability of the city,” she noted.     

“We’re missing out on a whole demographic in this community who would like to serve, should have the ability to serve, but can’t because they have more traditional
9-to-5 jobs and they don’t have the capacity to set their own schedule. Nor can they dedicate 25 hours a week with very little pay,” Sandoval said.