Oak Harbor Mayor and Council Receive 2.5% Cost-of-Living Adjustment

Oak Harbor mayor Ronnie Wright and city council members were awarded a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment after the Salary Commission finalized its recommendation and Human Resources Director Emma House presented the commission’s report to the City Council on Feb. 24, 2026; the presentation was recorded as a formality and required no council vote. The commission held two meetings in January to gather input and explicitly noted that a recently added monthly workshop had increased elected officials’ workload.

Separately, the City Council on Dec. 16 adopted Resolution 25-28 to provide a 2.5% COLA for non‑represented city employees effective Jan. 1, 2026; Councilmember Jim Wiesner moved to adopt the resolution and the motion passed unanimously. Emma House told the council the administration had recommended increasing the non‑represented COLA from 2% to 2.5: “We recommend that the cost of living adjustment for 2026 for nonrepresented employees be increased from 2% to 2.5%.” City staff estimated that the extra half‑percent would cost roughly $29,000 annually, with about two‑thirds of that added cost borne by the general fund.

The Salary Commission grounded its elected-official adjustment in comparable data and established practice. The commission reviewed Association of Washington Cities salary data from 2023, compensation and health‑care benefit information from comparable cities in 2025, and COLA adjustments applied across city bargaining units and non‑represented employees. The commission’s internal rules require annual consideration: “Prior to December 31st of each year, the Salary Commission shall meet to determine whether the Mayor and Councilmember salaries will be adjusted using the bargaining unit and non‑represented cost-of-living adjustment as a guiding principle.”

Oak Harbor’s salary records and prior commission actions provide context for the 2026 move. An earlier Report and Order passed March 2, 2023 produced a 3% COLA effective Jan. 1, 2024 for councilmembers. The Salary Commission document lists councilmembers as receiving $775 per month plus health insurance benefits and notes a Sept. 25, 2024 commission recommendation to raise council pay to $1,200 per month. In 2021 then‑Mayor Bob Severns described COLAs as “an immediate action that could be taken to boost morale,” a rationale officials have cited across recent cycles.

For copies of the Salary Commission report, Resolution 25-28, or the commission minutes, the Human Resources Department at Oak Harbor City Hall maintains the records: 865 S.E. Barrington Drive, Oak Harbor, WA 98277-4092; hr@oakharbor.org; (360) 279-4500. The commission requested that its report and meeting minutes be filed with city records as part of the routine oversight process.