Today, the Mayor announced she has vetoed the pay raise voted by the City Council.According to the Mayor:
More specifically I vetoed the raises because: - The increases should have been in line with the thoughtful analysis and recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission appointed by the City Council President. The amount the City Council voted for is excessive.
|
|
Only two City Councilors voted against the pay raises – Ward 7 At-Large City Councilor and Congressional Candidate Becky Grossman and Ward 2 At-Large City Council Jake Auchincloss.
Thoughts?
This is a canny PR move, Ruth. What a sacrifice for to forgo your proposed pay hike. Should the NPS teachers follow suit?!? Life of self-denial in Newton isn’t calming.
I thought that was pretty brave of her. I wish she had stated that no payraise would be considered until the employees all get their raises, but I still think it was a prudent move.
What justification was given by the CC for increases beyond the Blue Ribbon recommendations?
For those who don’t know, Mayor Fuller’s first name is “Ruthanne.”
Thank you for the leadership Mayor Fuller. This is the right decision for Newton.
Thank you Jeffrey for noting that. Unfortunately the people who make condescending remarks here about the Mayor while getting her name wrong do it purposefully in an effort to be disrespectful. They will claim otherwise, but I simply don’t believe that you can follow the politics/government of Newton so much so that that you are aware of and commenting on Village 14, yet somehow still not know the Mayor’s name.
Congratulations to Mayor Fuller for displaying some gumption in standing up to the City Council and doing the right thing on this. And for displaying that same gumption in standing up to BC and taking Webster Woods by eminent domain. And for standing up and acknowledging that NewCal needs to return to square one. It’s great to see some actual leadership on display in Newton city government for a change.
.. I believe the city council can override her veto. And if they do so then the sitting council will be seen as villains and Ruthanne will be Angel. Interesting! Should the council go forward with the veto vote, I wonder how that will play in the forthcoming election?
I applaud Mayor Fuller for showing Political Courage and doing the right thing. The size of the salary increases approved by the City Council was absurd.
I appreciate that the mayor pushed back on these raises especially when the teachers continue to work without a contract. However, the amounts the council recommended didn’t seem particularly outrageous when viewed as a fixed salary for the next 20 years. I expect by 2029 these salaries will seem quite low…
I hate the politicization of electeds’ salaries.
I agree with @Aaron Goldman that people misspell Mayor Fuller’s name on purpose. I’ve seen it happen repeatedly on a certain Facebook group mentioned here recently. I goes something like: “Ruth-Ann wants to keep Webster Woods to herself while putting a senior center on the NORTH SIDE!!!”
Thank you Mayor Fuller.
Having a former alderman( John Stewart) on the pay review commission poisoned this process for me right at the get go. It was an obvious and inexcusable conflict of interest.
Can’t say I am too impressed – the amounts are not exactly breaking the bank here. How about showing some REAL political courage and settling the teacher contract?
And James Freas is leaving ?
The mayor took a common sense approach given the current political climate. She recognized the need for raises after so many years, but refused to support the size of the increase – well above the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission — and the timing which is so problematic. She offered an olive branch to discuss raises that take into account the current challenges of unsettled contracts and a tight existing FY2020 approved budget. The Council deserves a raise, but it also needs to acknowledge the current challenges. The Council should meet the Mayor’s display of grace under pressure. Talk, don’t veto.
Dear Friends
An important fact has been missing from this conversation. Chapter 4 section 2 of our city ordinances mandates that the only time the Council can vote a raise for the city councilors is between January and September of a year in which there is a municipal election. The Mayor’s law department argues that the ordinance doesn’t really mean that. I therefore asked Mr. Olson, our Clerk, to give me a compilation of dates when raises were voted since raises were possible. Every single one was between January and September in a year in which there was a municipal election. There were 6 or 7 of these votes. Go read that ordinance – it is as clear as the nose on your face. We can only vote durng a very short window of time in a particular year.
The last time this was discussed was the late spring of 2005 at the end of my first term on the then Board- when I and my colleagues voted down the raise. What i have come to realize is that there is no good time to vote a raise for the city council. There is ALWAYS something going on that makes it look and feel awkward or wrong. In my time of service, there has never been a time when Newton is so flush with revenue that people say – this is the time – take your raise now.
If we fail to vote now it can not come up again until January of 2021- and who knows who will be on the Council at that time and whether or not there will be the will to docket the raise.
I’m also surprised that my good friend Ms. Larner has called the proposed raise as “well above the recommendations of the blue ribbon commissioin”. The Commission recommended $14,000. The midpoint salary of all the councils they studied (excluding Cambridge and Boston which are off the charts) was $19,000. The salary recommended by Councilor Baker was $15,500 – which reflected the consumer price index increase in salary above the current salary – so what the salary would have been using the cpi over the last 21 years since the last raise. This does not feel to me like an enormous amount over the recommendation exactly $1550 more and still well below the midpoint of all the city councils studied by the commission.
Finally – I want to say that I believe that every Councilor would say that the teachers and every other of our unions deserve a fair wage. The Council has nothing to do with negotiating with these unions. When this docket item was filed well over a year ago no one knew that our city would be stuck in unsuccessful salary negotiations. While i will take some heat for defending the raise – I felt that the facts are important. I have no problem with the Mayor vetoing our raise. I find her mathematical reasoning difficult. For example – if we were making $1 and the raise went up tow $2 that would be 1 100% increase. Which sounds very bad – but really is it? My point is the numbers are so low to start with that almost any increase is going to be a large percentage. I find that Councilor Baker’s recommendation of using the consumer price index was very appropriate as a guide.
The Mayoral salary did go up – but not nearly as much as the discussion would have had it go up. The point was made that raising the salary would allow a larger pool of people to run for Mayor. While nearly all city councilors have a day job in addition to being a city councilor – the Mayor is not allowed to do that. If this salary is voted through an override of the veto our current mayor can refuse to take the salary (as can every councilor) as did Mayor Cohen when the last raise was voted. This would still encourage a larger pool of candidates to enter the race in 2021.
Susan – I was totally with you – until you said councilors have no part in resolving the 17 unsettled city union contracts.
This unprecedented situation should be completely unacceptable to city leaders, and while you don’t have a specific responsibility, you have a voice -and an important voice at that. Councilors need to use their significant leadership role to speak with a strong voice to the mayor about this unacceptable situation.
Walk across the hall from the Council Chambers to the mayor’s office and let the her know that you think this situation needs to be resolved ASAP. It’s what leadership is all about.
Jane – yes of course, councilors have that informal role to encourage leadership to do the right thing – and it doesn’t even mean you have to walk across the hall.