Ketchikan’s borough offices are located in the White Cliff building. (Maria Dudzak/KRBD)
Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to raise its attorney’s salary by 20%. Glenn Brown’s annual compensation will be $155,000 – an increase of about $26,000, according to budget documents.
It’s Brown’s first merit-based pay raise as borough attorney in three years. He, the borough manager and borough clerk each received 3% raises in 2019.
As a borough employee, he’s been receiving relatively modest cost-of-living adjustments most years. Even accounting for that, the 20% pay bump for the attorney far outpaces inflation. The Consumer Price Index for urban Alaska has risen 8.4% in the last three years as of this past February. But Assembly Member Jeremy Bynum said Brown was well worth it.
“I believe he dedicates his heart and soul into this borough and ensures that we get the services of a top quality attorney at a very low cost, in my opinion. If this was a private enterprise, I would pay him much more,” Bynum said.
Brown also sits on KRBD’s nonprofit board of directors, which does not direct news coverage.
The assembly is scheduled to meet in special session on Monday to consider merit-based raises for the borough manager and clerk. Borough Manager Ruben Duran is currently paid $160,000 a year under a new contract approved last year that provided for a 12.5% raise. Borough Clerk Kacie Paxton is paid roughly $113,000.
Bynum said earlier this month that he wanted to consider raises for the borough’s three contracted employees before voting on a proposal to raise the mayor and assembly’s monthly stipends.
Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the White Cliff building. The meeting is live-streamed on local cable channels and the borough’s website.
