BREMERTON — Bremerton's city council is considering giving Mayor Greg Wheeler a raise, the first time in seven years that the city's top executive would receive a pay increase.

The city council has the authority to set the mayor's salary but hasn't done so since 2012, when it voted to decrease then-Mayor Patty Lent's compensation from $122,424 to $107,000. A council member at the time said the mayor's compensation was "out of line considering our economic situation."

City Council President Eric Younger brought up the measure at Wednesday's council study session. The raise isn't based on the performance of Wheeler specifically, Younger said, but rather because the council has gone so long without addressing the position's salary.

Younger said he felt it was a good time to look at the issue because the mayor is halfway through his term, and the city recently approved new contracts with many of its unionized employees.

"(We) went through these union contracts, so we're addressing every employee of the city, except for one, and that's the mayor," Younger said.

Wheeler did not ask for a raise, Younger said.

At the meeting, the council agreed to bump the mayor's annual pay from $107,000 to $114,000. Younger arrived at the $7,000 increase by looking at the same cities in Washington that Bremerton uses for comparison when it negotiates new contracts with its unionized employees.

Younger put forward three options for the council, including taking the average and median salaries of mayors of five cities similar in size to Bremerton.

The third option cut out Marysville, which has 25,000 more people than Bremerton, and excluded Bremerton itself. The average mayoral salary in the three remaining municipalities— Edmonds, Lynwood and Mount Vernon — came out to be around $114,000.

"I realize that this could be a politically charged thing, but I don't care, it needs to be done," Younger said.

Councilwoman Lori Wheat supported a larger pay raise for the mayor. The bump Younger suggested is about 6.5 percent, which spread out over seven years amounts to under a 1 percent per year, Wheat said.

"That definitely doesn't keep up with even the low inflation amount that the country has right now," Wheat said. "I would be open to a higher amount because of that reason."

Bremerton's mayor should make an amount similar to his peers in other cities, Younger said, and the rest of the council agreed that $7,000 was a fair increase.

"I think you did a wonderful job, you took the politics out of it and came up with an average of the three (cities) that are most comparable to Bremerton, and I'm 100 percent in favor of it," Councilwoman Pat Sullivan told Younger.

Bremerton's mayor already makes the most of the three Kitsap County mayors who operate under a mayor-council government.

Port Orchard Mayor Rob Putaansuu makes about $83,400 (population 13,945) per year, according to Port Orchard's human resources coordinator. According to Kitsap Sun reporting in 2018, Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson's salary was about $76,000 a year (population 10,400), and each of the three Kitsap County commissioners made about $132,700 that year.

The city of Bainbridge Island (population 24,404) operates on a council-city manager form of government in which council members are paid $14,400 a year and its city manager has a salary of about $178,300, according to reporting from 2018.

Wheeler's pay increase would be effective Jan. 1, 2020. The ordinance will include a provision requiring the city council to review the mayor's salary every four years.

The ordinance to amend the city code will come before the council for a final vote next week.