SHELTON — Shelton City Commissioners are the fourth highest paid elected city officials in the state, behind Seattle, Tacoma and Everett leaders.

At the request of city Commissioner Tracy Moore and others, city officials on Monday released a statewide analysis of salaries conducted by the Association of Washington Cities.

City Manager Ryan Wheaton presented the findings to commissioners during their Monday study session.

The analysis shows that commissioners in the City of Shelton, population 10,120, are paid $25,400 a year plus benefits. The benefits include medical coverage of up to $1,425 a month maximum, dental coverage of about $90 a month and vision coverage of $16 a month.

The City of Shelton pays an 11.18 percent portion of the council members’ salary to retirement with the employees’ portion of retirement at 6.112 percent under the Public Employees Retirement System plan.

The Association of Washington Cities analysis shows that the average budget for a three-member commission aveaged $76,200 a years compared to $41,874 for a seven-member commission at a rate in similar size Washington cities.

The pay and benefits were defended by Shelton Mayor Gary Cronce, who was quick to say he did not establish the pay scale or vote to give himself a raise during his time in office.

“It strikes me they are paying Shelton commissioners to give them the incentive to do what I am doing,” Cronce said.

Cronce said he often travels to Olympia to lobby for and bring back thousands of dollars in grants from state agencies that help the city make public infrastructure improvements.

Seattle City Council members in the city with a 713,700 population are paid $123,360 a year, Tacoma council members earn $46,008 a year and Everett council members are paid $28,056 a year. Tacoma has a population of 208,100 and Everett is a city with about 109,800 residents.

Falling behind Shelton commissioners in pay are Vancouver, Lynnwood, Lacey, University Place and Olympia.

Lacey council members in the city with 48,700 residents earn $17,100 a year and council members in Olympia are paid $16,896 a year.

The lowest paid council member in the central Washington city of Ephrata.

Shelton is the last city in the state with a three-member commissioner. Most other cities in the state have seven-member council-city manager forms of government.

A November election has been set allowing voters to decide if the City of Shelton should be run by a seven-member city council.

Cronce said he had no idea how the pay for Shelton commissioners was originally set or when it was raised to its existing level.

“I have no idea, I didn’t do it,” the mayor said.

The city commissioners have helped bring the city out of an economic “depression,” Cronce said.

If the voters approve a seven-member council-manager form of government in November “there probably will be a pay cut” to council members’ pay, he said.

Commissioner Moore said her request for the information was intended to inform voters about Proposition 1, asking voters to decide on whether Shelton should expand from a three-member commission to a seven-member city council.

“A lot of it relates to people asking can we pay to do it,” Moore said. “I just think we need to have all the information. And frankly, I was curious, too.”

If Prop. 1 is approved it would be up to the new council to determine the level of pay for its members, she said.