The only reason for a City Council pay raise, of dubious legality and a violation of any sense of good government, on track for Jan. 1, was offered at a hearing yesterday. The bill’s sponsor, Nantasha Williams, of Queens, said that there hasn’t been a raise for the 51 Council members since 2016. That was echoed by Brooklyn’s Lincoln Restler, who chaired the session.
But both Williams and Restler have only been on the Council for four years and they both knew the salary was $148,500 when they first ran in 2021 and when they successfully ran for reelection this year. Thanks to term limits, when the new Council is sworn in in January, no member will have more than four years of continuous service and that includes the new speaker, Julie Menin.
There will also be 11 freshmen who will have just started their terms: Simcha Felder, Frank Morano, Harvey Epstein, Virginia Maloney, Elsie Encarnacion, Justin Sanchez, Shanel Thomas-Henry, Tyrell Hankerson, Phil Wong and Kayla Santosuosso.
Yet, should they all vote themselves an immediate raise to $172,500 as one of their initial acts? No way. Menin must take another route.
The first plan of Williams and the other plotters was for the lame duck session of the Council to vote on the pay raise in December and have it take effect Jan. 1. But that is plainly illegal under the City Charter, which states that the only time that the Council can’t vote on its own pay is between the November general election and Jan. 1., to prevent lame ducks from helping themselves to more public funds.
The plan B was to hold a hearing in this session (as they did yesterday) and then introduce the bill again in January as being “preconsidered” and have an immediate vote the same day. Sorry folks, all unpassed legislation in one session of the Council dies when the new body takes over. The 2026 version of the pay raise bill, which also has raises for other city elected officials, will have a new number and will have to start from scratch.
And even preconsidered measures still must have a hearing and approval of the speaker.
The rush to grab cash is because both Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams failed to appoint a Quadrennial Advisory Commission to examine pay levels in 2020 and 2024, as required by law. At the time, we urged both mayors to follow the law, but they chose not to do so.
The Council’s pay should probably be adjusted, but it must come on the recommendation of one of these special panels. That has to be an absolute for Menin.
Williams’ bill, which grants immediate raises and backdates them to Jan. 1, 2026, says that the mayor must name a panel by the end of 2026, but that is backwards. Have a commission first. If the panel recommends a raise, vote in that raise, but to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. It really should take hold on Jan. 1, 2030, following the next election, but an exception can made this one time provided an important change is put into the Charter.
The Charter must be amended to adopt language mirroring the U.S. Constitution’s 27th Amendment: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”
Furthermore, that permanent solution barring all future self-raises, must be put into that part of the Charter that can only be altered by a vote of the public at a referendum, as most of the Charter the Council can change on their own whenever they want.
This year’s Charter Revision Commission should have included that fix on the November ballot. Put it on next year’s ballot. It will pass overwhelmingly.
