In January I told you how the good mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, backed a plan to give hefty pay hikes to the city’s elected officials — including himself — but with the catch that council members go full-time and give up their lucrative “lulu” bonuses. The caveat for the mayor receiving a pay raise? De Blasio said he would not accept the raise unless elected to a second term in two years.
The plan then also called for the city council members to receive a 23 percent pay raise. But yesterday, they outdid themselves: their pay raise went up by 32 percent.
Bill de Blasio and Speaker Karen Mark-Viverito/Photo via Weasel Zippers
The NY Posts reports that the members voted on this raise, which was above the recommendations of a salary commission, and there were seven dissenters. Their new salaries will be $148,500, which is $10,000 more than the mayoral-appointed commission had said was justified. Their current salary is $112,500.
The three Republican members, Steve Matteo and freshman Joe Borelli of Staten Island, and Eric Ulrich of Queens, issued a joint statement explaining why they voted no:
“There is a critically important reason the City Charter requires any changes to salaries for elected officials be evaluated and ultimately recommended by an independent body: because there is an inherent and obvious conflict of interest in having to vote oneself a pay raise,” the trio said.
“We felt the salary recommendations made by the Quadrennial Commission were the starting point of a public conversation about our jobs and our compensation. However, once it became clear that the proposed legislation by the Council would go beyond those recommendations, it precluded any potential support from our delegation.”
Forty members voted yes on the measure, including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Her salary will climb to $164,500. She said the extra pay was justified because the commission didn’t take into account one of the Council’s reform measures to greatly restrict outside income.
“We believe that there’s a value that should be added to the loss of that potential outside income. It was a modest amount of $10,000, and that is what we did in terms of that consideration,” she told reporters prior to the vote. “That’s a serious reform that is way overdue and has been demanded of this council over years and possibly decades, and so we’re taking that into account.”
It’s good to be a public servant!
Read the whole story here.
DCG
