The board of commissioners for Jefferson Healthcare recently approved a pay raise totaling more than $17,000 for CEO Mike Glenn.

The salary increase set Glenn’s yearly compensation at $300,000.

The pay raise was retroactive to Jan. 2, according to Jefferson Healthcare.

The salary increase was approved on a 4-to-1 vote at the commissioners’ last meeting in March.

Before the vote, several commissioners for Jefferson County Public Hospital District No. 2 noted the salaries of other hospital CEOs, and said comparable salaries were higher at other places in Washington state.

“I agree it’s a lot of money,” said Hospital Commission Bruce McComas.

“We need to be competitive with the other ones that are going around that could hire him away, close by,” he said. “I mean, that’s who we are competing with.”

Board members were provided with a chart with five other hospitals and the base pay salary for those CEOs. The list included Whidbey Health ($336,462); Olympic Medical Center ($211,243); Mason General ($405,586); Samaritan Healthcare at Moses Lake ($315,508); and Island Hospital ($333,442).

“This is not the time for us to risk losing someone when we are about to launch a master plan and he has shown by his leadership in the past few years, in particular, that he is able to help us go through this,” Hospital Commissioner Kees Kolff said before the vote. 

“And whether it’s advocating at the state or federal level for what we need, I don’t think there’s any question that Mike has benefited our organization tremendously,” he said.

“I also agree with [McComas] that it’s a lot of money, but fortunately and unfortunately we do need to be competitive in the health care market,” Kolff added.

“I would agree totally,” said Hospital Commissioner Marie Dressler. “Because when you compare even just the base rate with Mason General, which isn’t that far away, and look at the compensation down there, and even others, just across the water on Whidbey.”

“He has been exceptional in the 10 years, 11 years he’s been here,” she added.

“To not do this would be wrong,” Dressler continued. “Look at what we’ve come through, and look at his leadership, and look what we’ve done. 

And having been here for 40 years, I can tell you, it’s just an unbelievable miracle what’s happened to Jefferson Healthcare.”

Hospital Commissioner Matt Ready, however, said the pay increase was too much.

“I disagree with it. I think it’s excessive,” Ready said. 

“And as I’ve stated, I have some concerns about performance,” he said.

Pointing out that Glenn was in the lower half on the list of comparable CEO salaries, Hospital Commissioner Jill Buhler Rienstra called Glenn “a stellar performer, stellar CEO.”

“I believe he deserves it,” Buhler Rienstra said.

The board then voted on the pay raise.

The approval came after a 25-minute closed-door executive session at the end of the March 23 meeting. The session was held in private to discuss “performance of a public employee.”

Glenn’s previous annual base pay had been set at $282,638. (His total benefits package was calculated at $360,535, according to Jefferson Healthcare.)

The annual increase in base pay amounts to $17,362.