Reading is an excellent name for a communications director.

All overpaid given its our money.

Why is the transportation person the lowest-paid one!?

These are all pretty competitive salaries. You get what you pay for. I'm glad the mayor is doing his best to attract the best talent possible. Bargain shopping for city executives is a bad idea.

@ raindrop, government H.R. departments are in... What is it again? ...Oh yes, FREE-MARKET COMPETITION with the private sector for competent staffers. When it's otherwise, you get embarrassing situations like Jacob Zuma's sign-language "translator" (it'll be interesting to see what kind of patronage/nepotism was behind that, huh?). But I'm okay with the CEO-pay-doesn't-exceed-20X-the-lowest-paid-employee rule throughout society if you are.

I'm amazed @4 always gets what @4 pays for.

Ben Noble is a GREAT replacement for Beth Goldberg.

Hmmm

Sounds like he'll be pushing for the $15 minimum wage in 4 3 2 1 ...

The other strange thing is the dearth of Hispanic names, given the high turnout at local holiday parties

Good list.

What can I say @8? I'm a good shopper.

The picks seem decent, but holy crap that's a lot of money. No wonder the rent is too damn high.

I hate bloated public salaries justified by market competition more than the next guy. The U for instance pays absurdly high professional salaries for jobs that in reality are far less demanding than the jobs they're compared to.

But 170k to run a big city (which of course these people actually do, not the mayor)? Sounds more than fair to me.

No comments that I can find in The Stranger to this paragraph from the Seattle Times covering the same appointments:

"His choices aren’t household names, but Seattle Mayor-elect Ed Murray’s leadership-team members come mostly with lengthy résumés in government and business and, according to their new boss, will be ready to run the city on “day one.” (snip) The hires represent a sharp contrast with those of departing Mayor Mike McGinn, who initially filled his executive team with campaign workers and activists with little experience in city government."

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…

I agree, all overpaid. It's interesting to see these people get paid so much when there are so many people struggling financially and trying to put or keep food on the table.

Sick and tired of the blood suckers. Average American makes 52k . These blowhards are now trying to make businesses pay 15.00 per hour minimum when they personally have nothing to lose. They are not trying to run a business, they have the unlimited tax dollars to throw your money at things. Then they point the finger at business when the owner sweats it out for 10 years to get his biz going and when he finally starts taking home 5-10% they want to increase the labor cost by mandating wage levels? BS! These elected bozos for the most part have never run a real business and don't know what it means to be down to he last dollar. They just raise taxes and deposit their $12,000 a month take home plus perks! Lets vote some regular people in office.