SNOHOMISH COUNTY—At its Thursday meeting on April 25, the Snohomish County 2024 Salary Commission approved a total of $229,815 (or 14.98 percent) in pay raises for Snohomish County government elected officials over a two-year period effective January 1, 2025.
The commission unanimously agreed to a uniform approach to determining salaries for elected officials, reversing its decision on April 15 to applying a “rightsizing” methodology only for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s position.
“What if we brought it up to averaging it like the executive and put a 2.5 percent increase,” Commissioner Joe Wankelman suggested to his colleagues. “Inflation gets addressed…I am trying to find that happy ground, that happy medium.”
The methodology of rightsizing, utilized by the Salary Commission, sought to increase the salaries of the County Executive and Sheriff relative to their respective highest paid staff person. For the County Executive, it would be his Deputy County Executive at $245,584; whereas for the Sheriff, it would be to her Undersheriff at $235,049, both with an additional 1 percent starting January 1, 2025. The Deputy County Executive and Undersheriff position are both appointed by the County Executive and Sheriff respectively.
“Recognizing that these are 2024 comps that we are comparing 2024 salaries and trying to predict 2025, I will be in favor of considering [inflation] if it is 2.5%, 3% or whatever that might be, but applying that figure to the average for all of the positions with a commitment to bring all of them to that same point,” Commissioner Megan Hodgson said. “Again, with the interest of trying to maintain that appropriate placement in the market for the roles.”
After some discussion, the agreed upon methodology by the commission at its Thursday, April 25, meeting, that was applied to all positions including that of the Snohomish County Sheriff, was first taking the greater of a 5 percent increase (5%) or the average of the comparable salary rates. Then an additional two and one-half percent (2.5%) was added to account for inflation during 2024. Data shows that, historically, Snohomish County elected officials have been paid lower than their counterparts in other jurisdictions and the 2.5% adjustment aims to “fixed” this disparity.
The proposal also has all positions with a 5 percent increase for January 1, 2026. The commission agreed to a 10 percent increase in addition to the agreed 2025 and 2026 compensation schedule only for the position of Snohomish County Council Chair. The 10 percent increase is aligned to figures for the Chair position in prior years and is to reflect the additional duties of the role.
Below is a summary of the approved 2025 and 2026 Salary Schedule by the commission that will take effect on January 1, 2025.
The overall increase for 2025 will be 9.5 percent and five percent for 2026. The only driving factor for the 19.32 percent increase in the Sheriff’s position for 2025 was due to the sizeable disparity in salary when compared to comparable salaries from nearby and similar jurisdictions of Clark, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Skagit, Thurston, and Whatcom counties and the Chief of Police salaries for Everett and Seattle.
Charlotte Murry, Chair of the Salary Commission, thanked all members for participating in the commission and accomplishing their duties.
Salary Commission Authority
The 10-member Salary Commission serves two-year terms without compensation. They set base salaries according to the duties of office and to attract citizens of “the highest quality to public service” according to the county. The offices whose salaries are set by the commission are the county council, executive, assessor, auditor, clerk, prosecuting attorney, sheriff and treasurer. The deadline to submit an approved salary schedule is May 1.
In 2006, the voters of Snohomish County approved an amendment to the Snohomish County Charter that requires the recommendations of the commission to become law by January 1 of the following year without further action by the county council or executive. Compensation changes by the Salary Commission can only be overwritten by referendum petition in accordance with SCC 2.105.080 and Charter section 6.120.
Author: Mario Lotmore
