Leader photo by James Sloan

Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn is getting a $50,000 pay raise.

The hospital’s board of commissioners voted 4-1 to bring the CEO’s salary to $350,000, with Commissioner Matt Ready opposing the motion, calling the pay increase “excessive.”

“I would not be in support of that, as I said, I have some performance concerns that have not been addressed and I think it’s excessive,” Ready said.

Ready did not respond to a request for comment by The Leader to clarify his statements.

The pay bump marks the second raise for Glenn in the last 10 months, as the CEO’s salary was increased by $17,000 in March 2022.

“You get what you pay for, and I consider the performance of our CEO, Mike Glenn, particularly over the past two years, has been exemplary,” said Hospital Commissioner Marie Dressler. “We’re financially sound at this moment in time. We have taken care of our community members as best we can, and better than a lot of other places.”

Board members were provided with a chart of five comparable hospitals, with the base pay salaries listed for the corresponding CEOs. The list included Whidbey Health ($336,462); Olympic Medical Center ($211,478); Mason General ($391,378); Samaritan Healthcare at Moses Lake ($403,444); and Island Hospital ($297,716).

“Mike’s total compensation is in the mid-range of his peers,” said Jill Buhler-Rienstra, commissioner and chair of the board, in correspondence with The Leader. “Mike is an outstanding healthcare leader and Jefferson County is extremely fortunate that he chooses to work with us. He deserves to be fairly compensated.”

Jefferson Healthcare is one of only 15 hospitals in Washington state with a positive bottom line, has maintained a four- to five-star hospital rating from the Center of Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), and helped shape the legislative agenda in Olympia, and is due to receive $2.5 million in federal appropriations from Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office under Glenn’s tenure as CEO.

“I think we have positioned ourselves in this community as a tremendously valuable asset for our community, and I think that is in large part due to the work that Mike Glenn has done,” said Commissioner Kees Kolff.