Guest Writer: Bloated public salaries? Blame unelected salary commissions

A recent public chorus has questioned the salaries of local public officials — city and county executives, the Bellingham public schools superintendent, and the president of Western Washington University. It’s a fair question....University presidents and school superintendents are a different matter. They are appointed professional administrators, and best practices call for statewide or national searches — which justifies nationally competitive salaries. The Western Washington University president’s salary is in the normal range for similar public universities, and little more than half the salary of the president of the University of Washington.