The Lake Stevens Salary Commission recommended a 2.44% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for elected officials, a 1% market adjustment for the mayor and a 10% additional stipend for the council president, the commission said during its meeting. The commission directed staff to publish the recommendation and hold a public hearing on Dec. 1 before any final vote.

The recommendation would raise the monthly base council pay to $1,025 (a rounded 2.5% figure based on a 2.44% COLA) and increase the council president’s pay by 10% to $1,127.50 per month. The commission recommended a 2.44% COLA plus a 1% market adjustment for the mayor, which staff calculated at $10,984.56 per month, or $131,814.75 per year. Commissioners said comparator cities and internal rounding considerations informed their calculations.

Commissioners reviewed salary comparators for nearby cities including Everett, Marysville, Mukilteo, Lynnwood, Edmonds and Mount Vernon. Staff noted a spreadsheet error that had mixed up the data for Lake Stevens and Kenmore and reprinted the corrected comparators. Commissioners discussed that some comparator cities give additional stipends to the council president but not the vice president; the commission did not recommend an additional stipend for the vice president.

Commissioners also discussed whether to adopt a simple percentage (for example, 10% for the president) or to round to even-dollar monthly amounts for administrative simplicity. Staff presented scenarios showing how 5%, 10% and 15% supplements would affect monthly pay and demonstrated how a 10% premium would add about $100 per month to the president’s pay compared with the baseline council pay.

The commission voted earlier in the meeting to excuse absent commissioners and approved the minutes of its Oct. 13, 2025 meeting. The salary recommendations themselves were recorded as the commission’s formal recommendation to be posted with notice of the Dec. 1 public hearing; staff said the recommendation and hearing notice will be posted on the city website and a public comment period will be held at the hearing, where commissioners may revise the proposal before a final vote.

Staff named Anya Warrington and other administrative staff as the sources of the comparator analysis and noted that the city’s compensation philosophy for staff is generally to target above-average market percentiles; commissioners said that philosophy informed but did not determine elected-official recommendations.

Next steps: staff will post the commission’s recommendation and public hearing notice on the city website; the public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1, when the commission may adopt, modify or reject the recommendation after receiving public comment.