Editor's note. Our original Item No. 2 reported that Democratic State Rep. Ruth Kagi  was squaring off with  Democratic State Rep. Maralyn Chase to replace retiring State Sen. Darlene Fairley (D-32, Snohomish). We were wrong. Only Chase has declared. Kagi is not running. We have removed that report.

1. Camp Wellstone, the lefty candidate training boot camp (named after legendary Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone) was in town this weekend.

The Wellstone staff help candidates sharpen their Democratic message to take on conservatives.

This year, however, a number of candidates in the weekend training, like Sofia Aragon and Lillian Kaufer, are taking on Democrats. Aragon is in a race for an open seat in the 22nd Legislative District around Olympia where there a currently seven Democrats duking it out to replace retiring liberal Rep. Brendan Williams. And Kaufer, running in the 44th Legislative District, south and west of Everett in Snohomish County, is challenging an incumbent Democrat, Steve Hobbs.

2. On Friday we ran a story about Mayor Mike McGinn giving raises to his staff based on a public disclosure request we filed and on a subsequent interview with the mayor.

On Friday afternoon, we received a formal email from McGinn communications director Mark Matassa asking for a correction on the story, noting among other complaints, that staffers didn't get "raises" but recieved "COLAs" or cost of living adjustments.

Over the weekend, Aaron Pickus, also on McGinn's communications team, posted the email in the comments thread .

Here it is:

Dear Publicola editors,

Ms. Barnett's story today on salaries in the Mayor's Office contains a number of factual errors and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of complex classification and compensation details in city government.

Your use of the word raise throughout the story implies discretionary pay increases. In fact, several staff members, longtime Mayor's Office employees, received a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) -- as did 8,396 employees, both represented and unrepresented by collective bargaining agreements. In two cases, errors that occurred in the classification of employees at the start of their Mayor's Office employment were corrected through purely administrative processes and did not constitute a raise.

Overall, it is important to note that compensation levels of the current Mayor's Office staff are well below that of prior administrations.

In all, the McGinn Mayor's Office budget for 2010 is $3,691,788, compared with the 2009 budget of $5,736,498 for Mayor Nickels' office. That's a savings of 36 percent. We're doing the work of managing the city with 28.5 full-time equivalent positions, as against 42.5 last year.

For the rest of us in the Mayor's Office, no, there have been no raises this year. In fact, everyone in my office is taking a 10-day unpaid furlough, for a savings this year of $76,000.

A detailed list of corrections appears below. I would appreciate it if you would correct your story immediately.

1. No Mayor's Office staff received a "raise." Four employees in the Mayor's Office received the same 2 percent COLA received by 8,396 employees.

2. Allison Burson did not receive an increase of 18.2 percent. The adjustment to Burson's compensation was a correction of a payroll processing error. Burson's salary remains as was stated in our Jan. 4 press release.

3. By City Council 2010 budget action, Nate Merrill's position was transferred from OPM to the Mayor's Office. His position title was reclassified to align with extant Mayor's Office job classifications.

4. Neither Kindle Shaw (a woman, by the way) nor Melia Brooks received two raises or a "market adjustment." Both are city employees with at least eight years experience and thus receive the same COLA adjustments as do thousands of city employees. Also, Julie Tobin is a 12-year city employee who received a COLA.

5. April Thomas's position initially was mis-classified. She was reclassified to make her position non-exempt from civil service rules to conform with other Mayor's Office employees.

Here's the email we sent to Matassa on Friday afternoon, to which we never got a response.

Hi Mark,

Tried calling as soon as I got this and left a message on your cell. Obviously, we disagree on the story, but overall, I felt like I was fair and gave the mayor plenty of opportunity to respond.

On that front, I want to address your statement:

"Overall, it is important to note that compensation levels of the current Mayor's Office staff are well below that of prior administrations."

We definitely noted that. Prominently and with several examples. Here are the 3rd and 4th paragraphs from my story:

"McGinn pointed out that most of his staffers make substantially less than their predecessors under former mayor Greg Nickels—so, the mayor’s total office budget is actually nearly $200,000 less than Nickels’. (That figure includes the $10,000 of his own salary he said he’s trying to figure out how to return to the city). McGinn has a point: For example, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith makes $124,988, compared to former deputy mayor Tim Ceis’ salary of $187,317; legal counsel Carl Marquardt makes $124,998, compared to his predecessor Regina LaBelle’s salary of $130,001.

Fair enough: In general, McGinn’s staff makes less across the board than Nickels’."

OK, on to the specific correction requests.

1. No Mayor's Office staff received a "raise." Four employees in the Mayor's Office received the same 2 percent COLA received by 8,396 city employees. A cost-of-living adjustment is a salary increase, AKA a raise. I think it's semantic whether you call it a COLA or a raise (if I saw an extra 3 percent in my paycheck tomorrow, I'd consider it a raise.

One clarifying question: Given that most of the mayor's office employees didn't receive COLAs, why did these specific four employees get them? If those COLAs were for some reason not discretionary, I'd be glad to make a note of that

2. Allison Buson did not receive an increase of 18.2 percent. The adjustment to Burson's compensation was a correction of a payroll processing error. Burson's salary remains as was stated in our Jan. 4 press release.

Happy to make note of that -- although I also feel the need to note that the mayor, Aaron and you all declined to respond to questions about specific employees' situations. The city's database recorded it as an increase of 18.2 percent with a reason of "other" I asked Nancy Craver what that classification might mean, and she said she didn't know. Again, I asked for this information and am only receiving it now, in your request for corrections.

3. By City Council 2010 budget action, Nate Merrill's position was transferred from OPM to the Mayor's Office. His position title was reclassified to align with extant Mayor's Office job classifications.

I noted that Nate was reclassified in my post.

4. Neither Kindle Shaw (a woman, by the way) nor Melia Brooks received two raises or a "market adjustment." Both are city employees with at least eight years experience and thus receive the same COLA adjustments as do thousands of city employees. Also Julie Tobin is an 18-year city employeewho received a COLA.

Both Kindle and Melia received "market adjustments" (language taken verbatim from the city's database) of 4.5 percent and a COLA of about 2 percent. Again, I think saying these salary increases aren't "raises"is semantic.

5. April Thomas's position initially was mis-classified. She was reclassified to make her position non-exempt from civil service rules to conform with other Mayor's Office employees.

I made note of the fact that April's position was reclassified. Again, I didn't have access to specific information from the mayor's department about the reasons for reclassifications and salary increases, but I did make it clear her position was changed.

Give me a call this weekend or Monday and let's discuss all this stuff. I definitely want to be responsive to your concerns and have an open dialogue with you, Aaron and Mike.

Erica

Footnote: Josh ran into Mayor McGinn at Grey, a bar on Capitol Hill on Friday night, and they discussed Erica's story among lots of other things.



It was all off the record, though.