Mayor de Blasio approved raises for all the city’s elected officials Friday — including a 32 percent hike for City Council members — in exchange for reforms that some critics worry aren’t ironclad.
Dick Dadey of Citizens Union suggested the mayor should have signed two salary bills in pencil — not pen — because the reforms can easily be “erased” by future councils.
One of these short-lived reforms bans stipends known as “lulus” of $5,000 to $25,000 that are doled out by the council speaker to committee chairs — but only for the current term that ends in 2018.
“While that is a historic reform, it is only temporary — because that reform ends when this council leaves office,” said Dadey. “There’s nothing that will prevent a future council from coming back and enacting stipends in the future.”
Council salaries will rise from $112,500 to $148,500, retroactive to Jan. 1. The mayor described the raises as “fair” considering they are the first since 2006.
“The compensation of our public officials should reflect their round-the-clock commitment,” de Blasio said.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito — who supported an additional $10,000 raise for council members above what a salary commission recommended — was absent from the bill-signing.