PHOTO: Mayor de Blasio last week formally accepted the Quadrennial Advisory Commission’s recommendations of reasonable raises for elected officials and City Council reforms, including a ban on significant outside employment. Photo Courtesy of Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office
By Michael V. Cusenza
Mayor Bill de Blasio last week formally accepted the Quadrennial Advisory Commission’s recommendations of reasonable raises for elected officials and City Council reforms, including a ban on significant outside employment.
De Blasio has said that he will not accept a raise this term.
The Commission – Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., chairman; Jill Bright, commissioner; and Paul Quintero, commissioner – released a report last month in which they prescribed changes in compensation for Mayor, City Council Speaker, Councilmembers, Public Advocate, Comptroller, District Attorneys, and Borough Presidents.
The Commission’s deliberations reflect a concern for ensuring fair wages and benefits for all public employees – a concern that this Administration shares. Just last week we increased the minimum wage for city employees to $15 and offered 6 weeks paid parental leave to 20,000 city employees.
The QAC recommended that the Mayor’s salary be bumped to $258,750, from its current annual rate of $225,000; and that the Council Speaker’s salary should increase to $154,375 from $137,500.
Councilmembers would enjoy the most significant of all the raises, to $138,315 from $112,500, according to the Commission Report—a 23-percent punch-up.
“Our proposed raises for the office of City Council member are conditioned upon, and inseparable from, our proposal to eliminate lulus and to formally classify the job of City Council members as full time, as is already the case for all other City elected officials,” the Commission wrote in its report.
“Such a proposal would require all Council Members to wholly dedicate themselves to their office and forego any non-City employment that could require a significant amount of their time,” de Blasio said, adding that a process should be established to ensure that outside activities do not interfere with the councilmember’s effective performance of official duties and that any potential conflict of interest should be reviewed by the Conflicts of Interest Board.
“The loss of potential income from transitioning to a full-time status is not insignificant. However, should the City Council adopt this groundbreaking reform in New York City, it will have the dual benefit of allowing Council Members to fully commit their time and energy to their constituents and eliminating even the appearance of conflicts of interest,” de Blasio noted.
The city’s 109th mayor concluded his missive to Mark-Viverito by noting that the Big Apple “is home to some of the best, hardest working public officials and I believe the Commission successfully balanced a variety of competing concerns in their recommendations. I forward you this report with my approval, and affirm the Commission’s recommendation that, upon the City Council’s action on these proposals, all changes be made retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016.”
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
