– The Yelm city council is set to create a Salary Commission.
Tuesday evening, February 27, 2018, the council will vote to establish a Salary Commission for Elected Officials’ Salary Packages. This commission will make recommendations for elected officials’ salary increases/decreases.
Does Mayor Foster need to be considered for a raise? You decide after reading below.


– Editor’s Note:
After the blog story here on Mayor Foster calling himself a “full-time mayor” even though he is officially a “part-time mayor,” many readers wrote with comments and questions. One theme that rang through their responses was asking how the Yelm mayor’s annual salary (and benefits) compares to other cities. Here is the list:


– Thurston’s 4 largest municipalities have part-time mayors with city administrators:
* City of Yelm, population approx. 8,900, mayor’s salary $30,000.

* City of Tumwater, population approx. 25,000, mayor’s salary $19,560.

* City of Olympia, population approx. 51,000, mayor’s salary was increased last Fall to $25,000.

* City of Lacey, population approx. 46,000, mayor’s salary $18,600


– Bottom line:
Of the county’s 4 major cities, Yelm has the lowest population, yet highest mayor’s salary.
All four cities also have a full-time city administrator to supervise/administer city functions.

Yelm has a “mayor city-council” form of government with what is called a “strong-mayor,” meaning the mayor is the chief executive and administrative officer. The Mayor’s salary is commensurate with his part-time status pegged by the council at $30,000 annually plus benefits – and Yelm employs a full-time City Administrator with a commensurate annual salary of approx. $122,000 plus benefits.