Salary Commission approves 2027 salaries for elected officials

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026

At their June 29 meeting, the Grays Harbor Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials approved the 2027 salaries for Grays Harbor County elected officials — assessor, auditor, clerk, commissioners, coroner, prosecutor, sheriff and treasurer.

During the public comment period on the agenda items, Kym Foster, the Grays Harbor County Superior Court Clerk, asked that the commission not adopt the resolution as presented and reconsider the proposed salary schedule.

“My concern today is simply not about the percentage, final percentage,” Foster said. “My concern is about how the Citizens’ Commission on Salary arrived at this recommendation. … The Board of County Commissioners is a body elected by the voters to manage the county budget and to make decisions regarding the general fund. The Citizens’ Commission on Salary has a different role. This body exists to review elected official compensation and to set salaries based on accurate information, comparable salaries, statutory duties, responsibilities, workload and overall fairness. Those are not the same responsibilities.”

Foster continued, “When the Citizens’ Commission on Salary allows the county budget condition to shape the salary recommendations, the process shifts away from evaluating the value and the responsibility of the elected offices themselves. It becomes less about whether the salaries are fair and properly supported and more about the general fund and what it can tolerate with the adjustments. That distinction matters.”

Commission pro-tem LeAnna Ristow thanked Foster for her comments and acknowledged that she hadn’t realized the Board of County Commissioners is responsible for balancing the county’s budget.

“We are here just for the elected officials, but we need to take that information [the budget shortfall] and put it on the back burner and make a very good decision for the elected officials,” said Ristow.

In Grays Harbor County, salaries for elected officials are a percentage of the salary of a Washington state superior court judge, which, effective July 1, 2026, is $244,631. Consequently, all the elected officials’ current salaries will increase effective July 1, too, based upon the percentage adopted last year. (The superior court judge salary is determined by the Washington Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.)

The commission reviewed the job descriptions of each of the elected positions and revisited the Elected Official Salary Comparison spreadsheet that Rose O’Keefe, Clerk of the Commission, created to calculate the elected officials’ salaries based upon proposed percentages. Also included in this spreadsheet were the percentages used by comparable counties: Franklin, Grant, Island, Jefferson, Kittitas, Chelan, Cowlitz, Lewis and Walla Walla.

O’Keefe reminded the Commission that the Washington Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials will meet in the fall to set the superior court judge salary effective July 1, 2027.

“We don’t yet know if the state is going to be increasing or decreasing or freezing or anything. … If the state commission in the fall decides to have another increase July of next year, that will also cascade to an increase for our local elected officials,” said O’Keefe.

The Commission approved an amended resolution that would increase the percentage for all the elected officials by 0.5% from what was originally proposed to 1%. This would mean the assessor, auditor, clerk, commissioners, coroner, prosecutor and treasurer will receive 51% of a judge’s salary, resulting in an actual annual salary in 2026 of $120,523. The sheriff would receive 81% of a judge’s salary and an actual annual salary in 2026 of $192,836. In 2027, their salaries would increase to $124,762 and $198,151, respectively.

When looking at the average percentage of the comparable counties for the elected positions, the 51% of a judge’s salary for assessor, auditor, clerk, commissioners, coroner, prosecutor and treasurer positions is comparable to the other counties. However, for the sheriff position, 81% of a judge’s salary is an outlier, with Grant and Lewis counties having the highest percentage of 67% and 68% of a judge’s salary, respectively, for their sheriff position.