Cd'A City Council benefits: 'Wow'

COEUR d'ALENE — Coeur d'Alene City Council members receive annual gross earnings of $9,000, which is a whopping $750 a month.

It's plainly stated in City Code 2.72.010: "The salaries commencing Jan. 1, 2008, of each city council person shall be eight thousand seven hundred dollars ($8,700) per year, payable monthly, and then increasing the salary to nine thousand dollars ($9,000) effective Jan. 1, 2009."

What isn't so apparent is the benefits package that accompanies the salary, which, when broken down, can be as much as an additional $1,996.27 per month.

Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin was taken aback when he saw the details of his benefits, which he received in the form of a 2015 Total Compensation Statement form on Wednesday. It was the first time human resources had separated benefit information into dollar amounts with a percentage pie chart as a visual representation. Gookin's city-paid benefits were two-thirds of the pie.

"I never knew what the total compensation package was until I got this sheet," he said on Thursday. "Starting this last year, they had to put our medical benefits on the W2 (tax) forms, so that amount was listed, but I’ve never really seen the bottom line of what the total compensation package is, in other words, what I cost the taxpayer, until then. I was like ‘Holy smokes, it’s $27,000 a year.'"

Gookin said he was used to seeing the $9,000 salary that appeared on his W2, but after seeing the breakdown of benefits — medical, life insurance, dental, Social Security and so on — he was surprised.

"It said $9,000 and no one’s going to complain about that, I think, because a lot of people say, ‘Oh boy, that works out to less than minimum wage,'" he said. "The thing is, when you look at all the little bits and pieces and all the things I knew we were being provided but I never had a dollar figure on ... I was like, 'Wow, that adds up.'"

City council members receive the same benefits packages as other city employees, explained city human resources director Melissa Tosi, but the percentages are "way off compared to what a normal employee's would be just because their annual earnings are so low."

"The benefits are the same across the board, so the value of the benefits compared to what they make is just a very high percentage," Tosi said. "Historically, our mayor and city council have always received city benefits."

Gookin said it's interesting how the city compensates council members compared to other employees.

"When you get hired at the city, they sit you down and they say, 'Here’s the packages you get,'" he said. "Because you’re an employee, they extend the same packages to you, which is weird, because we’re technically not full-time employees but we’re paid that way."

Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Woody McEvers said he was also surprised to see the benefits breakdown in the compensation statement.

"When I looked at it I went, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of compensation,'" he said.

He said the benefit system for city council members in Coeur d’Alene has evolved through the years and that could be why it appears to be so substantial.

"The history of the benefits goes back into the '70s," McEvers said. "In the '70s, the city was broke and didn't have money. Employees needed more, so what happened is they started giving them benefits instead of a raise because the benefits were cheap in those days. That’s why the packages look so crazy good now compared to how it started. Benefits were always cheaper than giving raises."

He said from his experience with government, things tend to continue on a forward path.

"They don’t go backwards," he said. "Just like in most businesses, if you get successful, you hopefully make more money. As you learn more and become more valuable, you make more, and that’s kind of the same theory as government."

Gookin, who contacted The Press after receiving his compensation statement, said for transparency's sake, citizens should know that council members earn their salaries as well as the benefits. He said it would be interesting to know how neighboring municipalities handle compensation and benefits of their elected officials.

"I think people would find out it’s kind of surprising that cities around pay a councilman or mayor what seems to be a couple hundred dollars a month," he said.

"But when you add in all the benefits and everything else that’s going on, it’s actually not a bad gig."