Let me run some numbers regarding the salaries paid by Port Townsend to its 10 most compensated employees. They add up to $1.54 million and for the sake of this letter I will round it up to $2 million to account for benefits like health insurance. That $2 million is mostly paid for out of the city’s General Fund expense budget, which totals $17.09 million for 2025 per the city’s website. If somehow that $2 million was squeezed by 20% and the city hired or re-hired 10 persons willing to accept reduced salary and benefits that would save $400,000. Guess what? That imaginary savings of $400,000 would amount to 2.3% of the $17 million General Fund expense budget. And the savings would be an even smaller percentage of the city’s overall budget of $68 million, since some of the “Top 10” are presumably not paid from the General Fund (like the Public Works director). 

At best that would be nibbling around the edges of an allegedly bloated city budget. There is no need to go up that hill to fight the current city manager and sitting council members. A more honest and direct route would be to gather a slate of candidates for city council who would run on the promise that if elected they would get the city council to fire John Mauro. And, if elected, you (collectively) would then be in search for a new city manager willing to administer an organization with 113.6 full time employees (city’s web site again) and a $68 million budget for a smaller salary than Mr. Mauro receives. Good luck! For God’s sake, it is time for those complaining to fish or cut bait. 

David Alvarez

Port Townsend