The city of Kent’s state lobbyist will receive a $300 per month pay raise in 2015.
The City Council in December approved an annual consultant contract of $69,600 plus expenses to retain Doug Levy as the city’s lobbyist in Olympia. The rate will stay the same for the next four years. Levy received $66,000 last year. This marks his first pay increase since 2011.
“Doug was in Olympia when I was there,” Councilman Les Thomas said at the council’s Operations Committee meeting. “He is an amazing, well-respected lobbyist in Olympia and worth every dime in my estimation.”
Levy has worked as Kent’s contract lobbyist since 1999.
“Over the last 15 years Doug has brought multiple millions of dollars back to Kent,” said Michelle Wilmot, city community and public affairs director, who added in her presentation to the Operations Committee that Levy had requested the pay hike.
Wilmot said Levy helped bring in legislative appropriations for Green River levees and has helped the city continue to get $5 million per year from the streamlined sales tax mitigation approved by the Legislature.
Council President Dana Ralph said she has worked more closely with Levy this past year and discovered more about his lobbyist skills.
“I’m very impressed with not only his knowledge but the relationships he’s been able to establish and the respect that comes with that,” Ralph said. “I’m very grateful to have him working on our behalf.”
Levy, who lives in Kenmore, graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree and worked several years as a newspaper reporter in the Tri-Cities and Vancouver before switching to government work. He worked as the city of Everett government affairs director from 1994 to 1999 prior to branching out on his own.
Levy, who runs Outcomes by Levy, earned more than $400,000 in 2014 from state lobbyist contracts he has with eight cities and two recreational associations, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission reports. Besides Kent, he contracts with the cities of Everett, Fife, Issaquah, Lake Stevens, Puyallup, Redmond and Renton.
Levy received another $20,000 in personal expenses in 2014, including $2,554 from the city of Kent.
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