Bothell salary commission agrees preliminarily to peg council pay to 45% of single‑person AMI; schedules Oct. 30 public hearing

Bothell — At its Thursday, Oct. 9, salary commission meeting, members previewed three salary-and-benefits options for City Council and reached a preliminary consensus to recommend that council members’ base pay be set at 45% of the single‑person area median income (AMI), with corresponding adjustments for the deputy mayor and mayor. The commission directed staff to calculate exact dollar amounts and bring a draft resolution and final figures to a public hearing scheduled for Oct. 30.

The recommendation is a shift from ‘‘status quo plus COLA’’ toward indexing compensation to a local income metric. Staff described three options during the meeting: a low option tied to a cost‑of‑living adjustment (about a 2.6% increase), a middle option tied to a selected group of peer cities, and a top option tied to 50% of median household income in Bothell. After debate, commissioners converged on using a percentage of single‑person AMI and landed on 45% as the preliminary proposal.

Why it matters: commissioners said indexing pay to AMI would help lower financial barriers to serving on council and tie compensation to local economic…