City sets salary range for future police chief

Grand Coulee will offer a new police chief a starting salary range from $95,000 to $110,000 a year.

That was decided at the Nov. 21 city council meeting to prepare for the coming retirement of Chief John Tufts, who is currently paid a salary of about $127,200 per year, the mayor said.

That outpaces salaries for chiefs in many other cities of similar size in Washington, according to Councilmember Anita Eylar, who looked up several with populations around 1,000 currently paying in a range of $4,800-$6,100.

Others pointed out that population size doesn’t indicate the number of officers overseen, the caseload the town sees, or the complication of administering a workforce under contract to a federal agency as the city’s police department is.

Patrol officers in Grand Coulee earn a higher wage than those chiefs in other 1,000-population towns, as do officers in other nearby towns, reported the city clerk and police attending the meeting.

Officer Matt Gilbert said that he earned about $99,000 last year, including overtime pay.

Coulee Dam just negotiated wages for its police officers, which the city council approved Nov. 8. Their lowest police officer wage is $30.86 an hour, which would mean $64,189 a year at full time. With 10 hours a week overtime at time-and-a-half, a starting officer could earn $88,260 in a year.

A beginning police chief in Coulee Dam would earn $36.86 per hour at Step 1, topping out at $44.81 at Step 5, an annual salary range of about $76,000-$93,000 for that four-officer department, including the chief.

Coulee Dam’s police department also serves Electric City under contract, bringing its served population to approximately 2,000.