Salary Commission

Purpose

The purpose of the Salary Commission is to fix the salaries of the County Council, Executive, Assessor, Auditor, Prosecuting Attorney, Sheriff, and Treasurer in accordance with the county code, county charter and state law. The Commission shall study the relationship of salaries to the duties of the elected officials and fix the salary for each position. Except as provided in this chapter, the Commission shall be solely responsible for its own organization, and shall enjoy the fullest cooperation of all elected officials, departments, and agencies of the county.

Meetings

Once biennially (every other year) this Commission sets a series of meetings early in the year. Their goal is to submit a schedule of salaries to the County Council by May 1st.

The Commission scheduled a series of meetings in early 2017, and they completed their work in April on a new schedule of salaries. This was presented to County Council and approved on May 30th, 2017. View the Resolution and new proposed salary schedule for 2018-2019 here.

The next scheduled meetings of the Commission will take place in early 2019.

Agendas & Minutes

Agendas are available prior to meetings. Minutes are available following approval.

View Most Recent Agendas and Minutes

Members

The Salary Commission has 10 members. The following list of members were appointed and all have two year terms that commenced on January 1, 2017.

Member	Position	Email	Address	Phone
Mike Arbiter	Citizen At Large	Email	2621 Moore Street, Bellingham, WA 98226	360-739-4763
Kristi Birkeland	Citizen At Large	Email	854 E. Douglas Ave, Bellingham, WA 98229	360-201-6902
Justin Iverson	Organized Labor	Email	4821 E. Oregon St., Bellingham, WA 98225	360-738-9663
George King	Citizen At Large	Email	P.O. Box 609, Maple Falls, WA 98266	360-599-2883
Brian Lydiard	Business	Email	1463 Glen Cove Lane, Bellingham, WA 98229	360-671-4537
Randy T. Morris	Citizen At Large	Email	3455 Alm Road, Everson, WA 98247	801-425-6301
Jason Russell	Citizen At Large	Email	6189 Apollo Drive, Ferndale, WA 98248	360-303-8199
Diana Schmidt	Citizen At Large	Email	2233 Sweetbay Drive, Bellingham, WA 98229	360-441-2889
Jon Sitkin	Legal Profession	Email	2635 Shepardson Street, Bellingham, WA 98226	360-671-1796
Wendy Wefer-Clinton	Personnel Management	Email	823 E. Lake Samish Drive, Bellingham, WA 98229	360-733-4382

Specifications

Of the 10 members, 6 were selected by lot by the County Auditor from among those registered voters eligible to vote at the time persons were selected for appointment to full terms on the commission.

Of the 10 Commission members, 4 are selected and appointed by the County Executive. All 4 of these appointees have experience in personnel management, and 1 member was selected from each of the following fields of expertise:

Business
Legal profession
Organized labor
Professional personnel management,

Term Limit

2 consecutive full terms

Term Length

2 years

Authority

Date of Formation

February 28, 2012