Salary hike for mayor, city council garners watchdog skepticism amNewYork

"Under the proposal, city council members, the mayor, the public advocate, borough presidents and comptroller would get 16% raises, and district attorneys would see a 6% salary increase. Introduction 1493 would have council members give themselves their first raise since 2016, from $148,500 to $172,500. The council based that figure on cost of living, increased job expectations and increases to private, nonprofit and other electeds' salaries in comparable cities, like Chicago."

"Grace Rauh, executive director of the organization Citizens Union, raised concerns that the council making its own recommendation without independent input could deteriorate public trust in government at a Tuesday Committee on Government Operations hearing on the bill. According to Rauh, the plan also goes against the city charter, which requires the mayor to convene an independent commission to study and make recommendations for changes in elected officials' salaries every four years something Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams both neglected to do."

"For more than 50 years, every increase in the salaries of elected officials in New York City has followed the work of an independent compensation commission, which has conducted reviews and issued recommendations on pay, Rauh said. The current proposal before the city council breaks from that precedent, offers no supporting analysis for the proposed 16% increase and is being advanced in an 11th-hour manner to work around the very clear prohibition in the city charter that bars the council from raising pay"

City Council bill Introduction 1493 would raise salaries for council members, mayor, public advocate, borough presidents and comptroller by 16%, and district attorneys by 6%, increasing council pay from $148,500 to $172,500. The council cited cost of living, expanded job expectations and comparable-city salaries as justification. Watchdogs Citizens Union and Common Cause oppose the enactment process rather than the amounts, arguing the council bypassed the city charter’s requirement for a four-year independent compensation commission review. Grace Rauh warned that self-recommendation without independent analysis undermines public trust. The proposal breaks a more than 50-year precedent and lacks supporting analysis, critics say.

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