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Staff presents salary comparables; commissioners debate whether council should be volunteer or compensated at median income
Summary
Staff summarized comparables and data sources for elected‑official pay; commissioners debated CPI measures, the role of council staff, whether council positions should be paid, and requested corrected comparables and additional median‑income data.
Staff member McDaniel presented the commission with background materials on elected‑official compensation, explaining that comparables capture differences between mayor‑council and council‑manager forms of government and noting limits of publicly available data for some cities.
McDaniel said some externally sourced tables (the CES 2026 compensation table) may be out of date and that staff would verify sources before broad distribution. "A lot of cities do not publish their elected officials' compensation information," McDaniel said, adding that staff would confirm figures before publishing.
Commissioners pressed staff on which inflation index to use for adjustments. One commissioner asked whether to use CPI‑U or CPI‑W (or an average labeled CPIUW); McDaniel responded that the indexes have been similar in recent years but offered to pull examples showing how the indexes would affect local adjustments.
The discussion turned to the scope of council duties and council office staffing. Staff described the council office structure and the budget for those positions, noting that the central office and member‑level legislative assistants together totaled roughly $1.3 million in personnel costs (as discussed in the meeting).
Several commissioners debated whether council positions should be volunteer roles or compensated. "My position is that the Spokane City Council should be a volunteer position," one commissioner said, arguing the charter imposes few formal qualifications. Another commissioner said compensation helps attract a broader and more capable candidate pool and pointed to benchmark figures the commission is reviewing: current figures discussed in the meeting included $53,150 for council members, $70,600 for the council president and $186,400 for the mayor.
Commissioners requested follow‑up materials: corrected CES 2026 comparables, median full‑time income for each peer city in the comparables table, median salary for city employees (full‑time only), and additional CPI examples showing the impact of index choice.
