As reported in the Daily News over the weekend, the City Council is scheming to vote themselves a pay raise in the waning days of their current term, which ends on Dec. 31. We say scheming because the move is absolutely illegal. If they try to do so, Mayor Adams must veto it. Any pay raise for politicians is going to have to wait for years. Sorry about that folks.
Section 27 of the City Charter says, in full: “No local law or resolution increasing or decreasing the salaries, or other allowances, in accordance with Section 26 shall be adopted during the period between the general election day and the 31st day of December, both such days inclusive, in any year in which all of the council members are elected.”
This provision is there to prevent the type of sneaky self-dealing that Albany engages in, voting in a pay raise for themselves after Election Day to take effect on Jan. 1.
Queens Councilwoman Nantasha Williams told The News that her pay raise bill, which has about 30 cosponsors, will increase the current $148,500 Council salary by $24,000 (16%) to $172,500. The amount is not the issue. The timing is. It’s just too late. And it would be very wrong for the new Council and the new speaker taking office on Jan. 1 to hand themselves a pay hike. Pay raises must be voted on before the election and only apply after the election.
Which makes us ask where stand the contenders for speaker: Selvena Brooks-Powers, Amanda Farías, Crystal Hudson, Chris Marte and Julie Menin. Are they cosponsoring Williams’ Charter-busting bill? Do they think that the next Council should grant itself a pay raise? As speaker, is a pay raise part of the plan for the next term? They must all answer.
As for the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani ran successfully on the issue of affordability. He wasn’t talking about pay raises for politicians. Any pay raise should wait until the normal legal time for such matters, which is many years from now, not illegally rushed through by a lame duck Council.
The Williams bill has not yet been introduced, which is supposed to happen tomorrow. We look forward to seeing the dozens of names on it who are so willing to blatantly violate the supreme law of the city, the Charter.
The last pay raise for the mayor, Council and other elected officials was in 2016. Under Section 3-601 of the city’s administrative code, that came from the recommendations of the Quadrennial Advisory Commission for the Review of Compensation Levels of Elected Officials. The Council adopted unaltered the report of the panel for all offices except their own, adding to the amounts received for Council members and the speaker. The panel wanted $138,315 for the Council and $154,375 for the speaker, but the greedy pols larded themselves another $10K plus change to set salaries at $148,500 and $164,500.
The Quadrennial Commission was supposed to meet in January 2020, but Mayor de Blasio never acted. It was then supposed to meet in January 2024, but Mayor Adams never set it up. The next meeting is supposed to be in January 2028. Mamdani should follow the law and set it up then.
We urged de Blasio to act, to no avail. We urged Adams to act, but he didn’t. We also urged the Charter Revision Commission to reform the pay raise procedure to prevent self pay raises, but they foolishly let it slide even as we warned a problem was coming. The problem is now here. Fix it in 2028 with a panel and increase the pay in 2030, following the 2029 elections. And will someone please finally amend the Charter to make all pay raises only take effect after an election?
