In writing last week that Newton Mayor Setti Warren “pushed a measure to hike his salary by roughly $27,000 to $125,001 as part of a city budget proposal that was ultimately approved by Newton’s aldermen in 2012,” the Boston Herald’s Matt Stout is distorting reality.
Stout got some of it right — the raise that Warren rightfully accepted in 2012 was the suggestion of the Board of Aldermen-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission’s detailed research on compensation of mayors and town managers in 2005. Former Mayor David Cohen refused the raise until 2008 when he tried to insert it into the budget during a very contentious override campaign. After the ensuing uproar, Cohen withdrew the raise from the recommended budget.
While running for office in 2009, Warren–along with most of the other candidates–said he would not take the raise during his first year in office. The Newton TAB editorialized in 2011 and 2012 that Warren should take the pay raise, just as Cohen should have when the Blue Ribbon Commission first recommended it.
Saying that Warren pushed a measure to hike his salary is simply untrue. No pushing, urging, lobbying or cajoling was required or necessary. Warren took an established pay raise that had been owed to the Newton mayor, regardless of who held the office. As I recall, not only did the board agree, so did the former president of the Newton Taxpayers Association, Jeff Seideman.
@Gail: Who is playing with alternative facts?
According the article it was Warren’s spokesperson who used the term ” push for it”.
“Kevin Franck, a Warren spokesman, said the former mayor wasn’t available for an interview, but in apparent anticipation of such questions, he quickly emailed a “fact sheet,” which emphasized that Warren has criticized the process of the pay raises, not the hikes themselves. Mayor Warren’s raise was recommended by an independent commission in 2005, but he didn’t push for it until the city was in good enough financial shape to pay for it,” the email read.
Why are you going after the reporter, just reporting what Setti’s spokesman wrote?
City of Newton should be embarrassed that Mayor Cohen, and Mayor Warren, until recently were paid $98,000 to be the top government official of our City, when the Superintendent is paid over $240,000. I think that “pushed for it” is just 3 words and may be taken out of context. I’m sure the Boston Herald is joining the ranks of tabloid media who will dig up any fact now that our Mayor has indicated he is running for Governor in 2018. I think we have bigger issues to be concerned about in our city, state and country right now.
I was a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission that set the mayor’s salary at $125,000 with no increase for the then Board of Aldermen or School Committee. So there was no push for this salary. It was set appropriately and taken appropriately by Mayor Warren
This is unfair criticism of Setti. But there’s a larger issue here. Perhaps it’s one that should ultimately be addressed by the Charter. In my opinion, the Mayor of Newton should always be the highest paid city employee. If that were established by Charter–perhaps automatically paying the mayor 2% more than any other employee, it would permanently depoliticize the issue of mayoral compensation in a fair and reasonable way.
I remember clearly that the very low mayoral salary was a major concern during the Cohen administration and at that time, the “push” came from the community that was rightfully embarrassed that the mayoral salary was not even in the top tier of municipal salaries. It made no sense whatsoever.
Can we begin using the term “lie” when it rightfully applies?
The issue is not if the Mayor did or not push, the issue is that the spokesperson for the Mayor used the term push, which the reporter then followed up by using as well. (As an aside, I don’t think anyone here would have any idea if the Mayor brought the issue up at all to his close aides.)
If the mayor’s personal spokesperson used the term “he didn’t push for it until..” (the Mayor), why would anyone else be called to task?
@Jane you can use the term lie when it is rightfully applied, but who is lying?The spokesperson for the Mayor?
The issue is calling out a reporter, when he did nothing wrong. No one likes be maligned unfairly, and this reporter doesn’t deserve the criticism, based on the quote from the e-mail ( assuming it to be an accurate quote).
@Tom: Actually the article is criticizing the mayor by drawing a parallel between the two pay raises. They aren’t the same.
@Neal: Nice to see you sticking up for the reporter. Bottom line is Kevin Franck wasn’t there then either. “Pushed” does not accurately describe the circumstances leading up to Setti Warren’s pay raise in Newton.
Your all so wrapped up in defending this man, you are missing the point of the article. No one is criticizing the Mayor for taking the payraise. They are making a point and that he took a payraise for himself, but he is criticizing the state legislatures for voting themselves a payraise. They are commenting on what they feel is hypocrisy. Take care.
Tom…I have to respectfully disagree! The situation at the state level is that the legislature actually voted for a pay raise for their leaders, including the leaders voting for their own salary increse.
This is very different from what occured in Newton. The pay increase which eventually Mayor Warren accepted happened well before he came into office. This is really apples and oranges and one should not try to connect the two. To make this a case of hypocrisy is silly.
I’m referring to the larger issue that’s consuming the media throughout the country. Reporters, commentators, newspapers/TV/digital news don’t seem to be able to call a lie a lie or even distinguish the truth from misinformation.
I don’t care about what the spokesperson said to the reporter. I care about the facts. This is an insignificant example of the media not having the courage or the reporter taking the time to find out the facts.
The larger issue is that the media – at all levels – isn’t willing to call a lie a lie or do the heavy lifting to find out what the facts are. We’re heading into an election season in Newton, and the inability of the media to report accurately should be a concern to every candidate runs for office.
@Jane: I’m not sure what you are reading, listening to or watching these days but I’m seeing and hearing the word “lie” and other words describing untruths used by many, many legitimate media sources these days.
So am I and I’m pleased to read it more and more. But let’s be honest, the media just began to address the issue with a sense of gravity a week ago when Kelleyanne Conway introdused the term “alternative facts”. It was a stunning moment.
@Greg:
No argument that the words used by the reporter were inaccurate, but you understand how the reporter came to use them. No way should the reporter be blamed, it is all on the spokesperson for Setti. That is why he is referred to as a spokesperson, he is speaking for Setti.
I think Neal has a good point here, partially at least. Warren’s spokesperson erred by using the words “pushed.” But the reporter should have put “pushed” in quotes in the first paragraph because it does not accurately describe what happened. It would not have taken much digging to learn the actual events. Journalists should attempt to convey the truth in their reporting. This story doesn’t do so. They both were at fault.
Marcia Johnson’s first post relates the facts. We let the media get away with shoddy reporting for too long and look where it’s gotten us. The only way to get news outlets to report more accurately and carefully is to hold their feet to the fire. Everyone has to stand up to the plate in these frightening times, including the media.
If normal, everyday people lose faith in the media, then we’re in real trouble. This incident is so minor that it doesn’t even rise to the level of being a thread on a local blog, but look what happened? It was repeated in another forum.
If we want qualified people to run for Mayor of Newton, we need to pay for his/her service. I find it hard to swallow that we pay our Superintendent of Schools so much more, and he has made some questionable decisions (plagiarism and sweeping Hate Crimes under the rug). If we want a top notch mayor, we will need to pay that person, and now is the time to think about what is a good salary for a mayor of a great city that is unique in our state (large school system with a great reputation, a city that maintained housing prices during the recession, great community, good library, etc). It takes a great leader to lead our city, and I want to attract good people to run.