The city of East Wenatchee is rearranging the group of cities and counties it compares itself with for the purpose of determining employee salaries. 

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The updated list of comparable cities and counties comes as East Wenatchee will be going through contract negotiations with labor unions. 

Major Jerrilea Crawford says using the list will give them numbers to bargain with unions over employee compensation. 

"This is a very defendable practice to use by all these criteria, matching ourselves up to appropriate cities," said Crawford. "So, I like having best practices that we can bring to the union to justify our position." 

East Wenatchee bargains with two unions over salaries for police officers and public works, municipal court and clerical workers. 

It has three contracts with the two unions: 

  • AFSCME Local 846 represents Public Works, Municipal Court, and City Hall Clerical Employees 
  • Teamsters Local 760 represents the East Wenatchee Police Officers 
  • Teamsters Local Union 760 represents the Police Clerical Employees 

East Wenatchee Finance Director Josh DeLay says the list gives them some leverage in union negotiations. 

"I've personally seen in negotiations where they've tried to use large King County cities as comparable," said Delay. "So, this just gives us a foundation to go off of. It prevents any sort of conflict within negotiations." 

Comparable public cities and counties are determined based on comparable populations, comparable assessed values, sales tax revenues and comparable geographical proximity. 

Cities and counties that have a potential to compete with East Wenatchee for the hiring of personnel are also included on the list. 

Every two years, city staff is required to analyze and recommend public entities that the City compares to for salary setting purposes. 

Three cities from the 2022 analysis are coming off the list: 

  • Ridgefield  
  • Liberty lake 
  • Poulsbo 

Two cities are being added are in bold below:  

  • Sunnyside 
  • Enumclaw 
  • Ellensburg 
  • Airway Heights 

The local cities and counties East Wenatchee competes with for employees are below: 

  • Chelan County 
  • Douglas County 
  • City of Wenatchee 

The East Wenatchee City Council approved the list comparable cities and counties at its most recent meeting. 

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