Guest Opinion | San Juan County has a spending problem…

and it’s got nothing to do with the Department of Environmental Stewardship

||| FROM KEVIN RANKER |||

The County Council is considering a budget that eliminates the Department of Environmental Stewardship as an independent department in order to “save money” – which history has shown means there is no independent advocate for the environment within our county government.

What makes no sense is the Environmental Department actually brings in hundreds of thousands in grants and the Director’s position – which they are eliminating to “save money” – is almost entirely paid for by the Solid Waste Utility and the Stormwater Utility and does not greatly rely on the general fund… where they need to make cuts.

Where is there significantly increased spending in the county? Administration.

In Human Resources where we used to have one staff, we now have three with a Director making $180,000 and two support staff each making approximately $100,000. We have a Coroner at 20% time making $98,000. We have a risk manager making $157,000. We also now have a Deputy County Manager making $198,000 and finally, there is our County Manager who makes more than Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson at $242,760.

Putting aside the question of whether we need this many administrative staff in San Juan County, let’s take a closer look at the salary of our County Manager by comparison to other Washington Counties, as is surprising that our county manager makes more than the Governor and more than many counties much bigger than ours – even though we’re the smallest.

I have listed below several other Washington counties, how many citizens they serve, how many staff the manager oversees and their salary. Finally, according to the affordability index, Jefferson County and King County have similar cost of living to San Juan County.

Read for yourself below and then show up on October 5th at the County Council budget hearing in Friday Harbor or write a letter and let our Council know the Department of Environmental Stewardship is not the problem.

Here’s the details:

• San Juan County: Population 18,598, Number of county employees 230+/-,  County Manger salary $242,760
• King County: Population 2,371,919, Number of county employees 18,000 +/-  County Executive salary $280,584
• Whatcom County: Population 230,503, Number of county employees 1,000+/-Whatcom County Executive salary $250,915
• Snohomish County: Population 880,242, Number of county employees 3,500 +/-County Executive Salary 242,993
• Thurston County: Population 306,390, Number of county employees 1,000+/-  County Manager Salary $235,400
• Clallam County: Population 78,474, Number of county employees 594 +/-  County Administrator salary $195,316
• Jefferson County: Population 32,977, number county employees 130 +/-  County Administer salary $185,546.40
• Washington State: Population 7,705,281, number of state employees 123,565 +/-Washington State Governor Salary $234,275