The Juneau Assembly approved salary bumps on Monday night for both the city manager and city attorney.
The Assembly discussed the increases during an executive session that was not open to the public during the meeting. Both City Manager Katie Koester and City Attorney Emily Wright received a 3% wage increase and a $2,000 lump sum payment. The increases boost Koester’s annual salary to $243,462 and Wright’s annual salary to $214,925. Both increases are retroactive to July 13.
The raise alone is just short of keeping pace with inflation, as calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics compared to this time last year. The bonus included pushes the officials’ salaries to outpace inflation for 2026.
Juneau Assembly member Ella Adkison made the motions and explained the reasoning behind the increases.
“This increase and lump-sum payment are recommended because they are the same as would be received by an unrepresented or MEBA [Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association] CBJ employee in July 2026,” she said.
Assembly member Nano Brooks was the sole member to vote against the increases.
“I just believe with the increases that were made over the last couple years, they put it into a range that was far beyond the MEBA increases given to other staff,” he said. “So already kind of puts it at the scale that is years ahead of where it should have been to you know prior to where those increases were.”
However, Assembly member Christine Woll pushed back at his comments.
“I was part of the hiring committee, and then have been part of the board as we have set these salaries every year, and we have used a framework that is consistent with how CBJ compensates their employees throughout the entire process, including starting salaries and increases along the way,” she said.
Both increases passed in a 6-1 vote, with Assembly member Maureen Hall and Deputy Mayor Greg Smith absent from the vote.
Koester’s pay puts her as one of the highest-paid city managers in the state and is higher than Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s salary. But while she has the city’s highest salary, she isn’t the highest-paid employee when it comes to actual earnings. According to a public records request by KTOO, Koester’s earnings in 2025 were outpaced by three Juneau Police Department officers, who are eligible for overtime pay. The top-paid officer eclipsed her salary by more than $35,000.
The officers are police officer Terry Allen and police sergeants Brian Dallas and Michael Wise. Last year, all of them made between $230,000 and $272,000. Wise ranked at the top, earning $272,180 in 2025 — which breaks down to close to $23,000 a month.
