Liberty Lake salary commission reviews mayor and council benchmarks, appoints chair and schedules follow-up

The Liberty Lake Salary Commission met Oct. 16 at Liberty Lake City Hall to review the data and methodology it uses to benchmark compensation for the mayor and council and to set a schedule for producing a formal recommendation to City Council.

Commissioners discussed the commission’s charge, which is established by a City of Liberty Lake ordinance, and the underlying data source: the Association of Washington Cities salary and benefits survey and job descriptions published by the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington. Commissioners said the panel confines its comparison group to Washington cities with populations roughly between 10,000 and 30,000 and to municipalities with a strong-mayor form of government; it also excludes cities where the mayor is full time or eligible for employee benefits because those roles have different job descriptions and compensation structures.

Commissioners described methodological choices intended to avoid skewing the benchmark. They said the commission applies a 10-year rolling inflation factor (the commission cited a 2.6% rolling rate for this cycle) to older salary data and, last year, removed jurisdictions that had made no compensation adjustments over multiple years because those stagnant data points distorted averages. Staff identified recent outliers in 2025 — notably Monroe and Ferndale, which reported unusually large increases — and Sumner, which also posted substantial increases. Commissioners debated whether to exclude Ferndale and Sumner from the primary benchmark average because of those anomalies, and asked staff to produce parallel spreadsheets showing (a) the current pool, (b) the pool with Ferndale and Sumner removed, and (c) the pool with Post Falls included for neighborhood comparison only.

Commissioners noted the commission’s previous action to phase an increase into two years: a 7% increase adopted for the mayor in 2025 as the first step of a planned two-year approach. Staff reported that, based on the commission’s aging method and the current benchmark pool, an aged average comparison would put the model mayor compensation for 2026 higher than Liberty Lake’s current mayor’s pay. The meeting transcript records the commission’s current mayor salary as "$26.75 a month," as stated by staff during the discussion; commissioners asked staff to include at least five years of historic increases in the next data package so the commission can show trends since the panel was reconstituted.

The commission voted to appoint a chair during the meeting and approved the meeting agenda. Commissioners directed staff to (1) re-send the meeting slides and data to members, (2) prepare the three parallel spreadsheets described above (with and without the identified outliers, and with Post Falls for neighborhood context), and (3) produce a chart of five years of increases for Liberty Lake mayor and council pay to present at the next meeting. Staff also said they would contact or spot-check nearby Idaho cities (for example, Sandpoint and Post Falls) to gather comparative information but indicated those cities would likely be used for background only because cost‑of‑living differences could skew comparisons.

The commission scheduled a follow-up meeting for the coming Thursday at 3 p.m. and discussed finishing the review before the city’s budget adoption meetings in December; the commission noted that any salary recommendations would be timed to take effect Jan. 1, 2026, if forwarded to and approved by City Council.

Votes at a glance - Agenda approval: approved by voice vote. - Chair appointment: approved by voice vote. - Motion to adjourn: approved by voice vote.

Next steps: Staff will circulate updated spreadsheets and a five‑year trend summary ahead of the next meeting; the commission expects at least one public hearing before forwarding any formal recommendation to City Council.