L.S. City Council votes to increase salaries

Dear Editor,

On April 14th the city council voted to give salary increases to city staff to match the average salaries of equivalent employees in comparable cities in the state. Some of the salary increases were as much as 15%, and this is on top of 2% raises already received in January this year.

Normally the city is supposed to introduce such changes in the annual budgeting process which occurs each fall. Instead, this surprise change was introduced while one of the city council members was on vacation.

Automatic increases to the average do not make any sense. I’m sorry, not everyone is average. By definition, half are below average. Mathematically, if every city followed this approach, there would be an endless upward spiral in wages. In reality, wages should follow performance.

I was disappointed to learn about this from the Everett Herald. The city council is the Journal’s beat. I should have learned about it here first. The Journal is supposed to be a watchdog for the public against city excesses.

Bruce Morton

Lake Stevens