Redmond mayor disbands city council salary commission

Redmond Mayor Angela Birney disbanded a citizens’ salary commission after it proposed an increase to a six-figure salary for the part-time position.

The mayor of Redmond made a last-minute decision to nullify city council members from a near 600% pay increase after the Redmond Salary Commission considered raising the salaries of city council members to $115,000 a year.

The Redmond Salary Commission was attempting to decide just how big a raise to give the city’s part-time council members with a vote originally scheduled for last week.

The council members currently make just under $19,000 a year now. With benefits included, the salaries would have jumped past $140,000.

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That kind of raise in salary would require a tax increase, or job cuts at other city departments — something she does not want to happen.

“As Mayor, my job is to manage the city and the financial resources entrusted to me by the community and to ensure that your tax dollars are spent responsibly on services that best serve the priorities of Redmond,” Birney wrote in a prepared statement. “To maintain the city’s finances, I have no choice but to take action. As of today, I have notified and officially disbanded the Salary Commission, per my authority.”

Instead of increasing salaries to six times their current pay, the mayor says she favors an increase that’s more in line with a standard “cost of living adjustment,” or “COLA.”