EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive John Lovick’s administration has reinstated a controversial pay raise for an attorney who oversees parts of the public defense system.
Sort of.
Lovick agreed last month to rescind Sara Bhagat’s 21 percent pay hike, after a majority of the County Council suggested it was illegal under the county code. Soon after, Lovick’s office raised Bhagat’s salary again — this time by 25 percent, using a different method. Her current annual compensation of $108,124.92 is about $3,000 more than what she had been earning since last year as administrator for the county’s Office of Public Defense. The new salary is retroactive to Dec. 31.
County Councilman Ken Klein called the maneuver “inappropriate and wrong.” He said the amount of the raise was unfair to the county’s nearly 2,800 other employees, even if it adheres to the letter of the law.
“Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right,” Klein said.
While the rhetoric might be heated, it’s an issue that state auditors recently said needs attention — and from people on both sides of the dispute.
The disagreement is the latest turn in a year-long dispute over raises awarded to some of the county’s highest-paid managers. It was a sticking point during budget negotiations this fall, when the council revoked 10 percent raises for a half-dozen managers under Lovick’s authority: Deputy Executive Mark Ericks, human resources director Bridget Clawson, parks director Tom Teigen, facilities director Mark Thunberg, budget and systems manager Brian Haseleu and controller Sharyl Raines.
Lovick’s administration has defended the pay increases as a way to make Snohomish County competitive with other local governments when it comes to recruiting talent. Some raises also were necessary to ensure that women managers are paid salaries equal to men in similar positions, Lovick said.
Little effort was made to balance out pay under Lovick’s predecessor, Aaron Reardon. For most of Reardon’s nearly 10 years as county executive, the human resources director was the only woman in his administration entrusted with overseeing an entire department.
Reardon also often selected his managers from a small pool of political allies. Brian Parry, a former Reardon campaign manager and building industry lobbyist, quickly rose from Reardon’s office assistant to become, by age 30, one of highest-level administrators in county government. Under Reardon, Parry was paid $115,000 a year and had responsibility for oversight of key functions, including the planning department. After Reardon resigned, Parry remained on the county payroll, and still works on special projects in the public works department for about $96,000 a year.
Though Bhagat received her raise before the 2015 budget was adopted, council members say they didn’t learn about it until January. Lovick has said her name was included in an October report listing employees whose jobs had been reclassified at a higher pay grade.
County managers like Bhagat are paid according to a table with 18 different pay ranges. Within those ranges are 15 smaller pay increases called steps.
The human resources department, which is under Lovick’s authority, can approve step increases without going through the council. That’s what Lovick’s administration did to boost Bhagat’s pay the second time around.
Bhagat’s initial raise was granted at a higher range. A majority of the council has argued it wasn’t allowed without the council’s approval. They produced three separate legal opinions from county attorneys suggesting that their interpretation of code is right.
The executive’s office counters with the conclusion that the state Auditor’s Office reached this month, after a regular review of the county’s books. Auditors recommended that county lawmakers clarify the procedures to grant manager raises. They “found conflicting interpretations of the applicable codes.”
On April 23, Lovick wrote a memo saying he would roll back Bhagat’s salary to her original pay range, even though he believed the raise was awarded properly.
Bhagat did not respond to opportunities to comment for this story. The daughter of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, she has been leading the Office of Public Defense since October 2013, after rising to the top of a competitive hiring process vetted by a multidisciplinary panel. Critics of her raise have taken pains to note that they’re not challenging her competency.
She oversees an office that includes seven employees that administers grants, conducts pretrial screenings and is responsible for providing information to help the court set bail.
A separate, larger organization called the Public Defender Association handles most of the actual trial work under contract with the county.
The association’s attorneys would be unable to do their jobs without the services provided by the Office of Public Defense, said director Kathleen Kyle, who praised Bhagat’s performance. Kyle credited Bhagat with automating the office and adapting to complex legal requirements for representing indigent defendants.
“She really hit the ground running, in the sense that she had experience working as a public defender,” Kyle said. “She also, as an administrator, got up to speed quickly and made some improvements quickly.”
Bhagat had been earning $86,574.60 until November, when Lovick’s human resources department boosted her pay to $105,175.80. That raise was backdated to the previous April and she received a lump-sum payment for the difference.
In an attempt to resolve the manager-pay issue over the long term, county leaders have agreed to pay a contractor up to $25,000 to determine appropriate compensation. They’re asking for a study that looks at 13 specific positions in an employment category known as “management exempt.” They include the six people whose salaries were rolled back in the budget, plus the Office of Public Defense administrator and six others. Bids for the work are due by June 5.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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