Plan A for a stealth City Council “raise our own pay” gambit failed, thanks to the clear language of the City Charter — so it’s on to Plan B, which has the added “advantage” of sandbagging the new mayor in his first week in office.
Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-Queens) wanted the council to vote itself a 16% salary increase this week, to take effect in January — and had 30 co-sponsors lined up, a solid majority on the 51-member council.
Too bad the city constitution outright bans the council voting itself more income “between the general election day and the 31st day of December” in any year where its members are all up for election.
Her fallback: Have council committees clear the legislation now, so the full body can rush it through come January, and so force then-Mayor Zohran Mamdani to either sign it or start his term at war with the city’s legislature.
The plan is to boost members’ pay from an already-absurd $148,500 to a princely $172,500; it would also hike pay for the mayor, city comptroller, public advocate and five borough presidents a similar 16%.
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Maybe Williams hopes that will entice Mamdani to go along?
Then again, his voters probably didn’t elect him so he could make the city more “affordable” for the politicians who run it.
Council members gripe that their pay hasn’t been raised since 2016, as Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams both ignored the law that orders the mayor to call a Quadrennial Commission on Compensation Levels to consider pay hikes every four years.
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Yet that 2016 hike was obscene: up $36,000 (from $112,500), as the council upped what the commission had recommended by 10 grand.
Frankly, we doubt most council members could find another job that pays them as much as the current $148k, let alone $36,000 above that; otherwise, they’d be in those jobs.
Potential good news: Even Plan B may fail.
The City Charter also prohibits the adoption of local laws “inconsistent with the provisions” of the city’s governing laws, which sounds like it precludes council action except in response to Quadrennial Commission recommendations — which would mean no hike before 2030.
Right after he takes the oath of office, the new mayor should cite his fealty to the letter and spirit of the Charter and vow to veto the pay hike: It’s the honorable response to Williams’ bid to blackmail him before he can even move into Gracie Mansion.