Marc Laredo, City Council president tells the Newton TAB that Fuller’s decision was not a surprise and he “would expect we’re going to override the mayor’s veto.”
Laredo expects City Council will override Fuller’s pay raise veto
by Village 14 | Sep 27, 2019 | Newton | 15 comments
Mr. Laredo needs to put full time city employees first and get contracts for the teachers and the police.
It was a pretty shrewd move for Fuller to veto it. I’m sure she knew they would override it.
The city council doesn’t negotiate the teacher contracts. This a deserved raise after 20 years of no raises.
I agree that the mayor should get the other contracts done. If there’s money for a new senior center there should be money for city employees.
Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen from the school Committee they are not the most competent group, so good luck to the teachers!!
Incompetent bunch… the whole lot of them.
Regarding the proposed salary increases for the councilors. This is not the right time especially with the city spending so much money on hiring outside consultants to force the zoning changes and catering to the developers.
It is finally election time, so let’s VOTE out all the councilors that are pro-development. Some of them seem to forget we elected them and they should be doing what we want, not what they want.
The School Committee negotiates the contract but the Mayor sets the amount they have to spend and the City Council approves the budget once the School Committee send it to them. The School Committee should have not passed the budget if it couldn’t cover what the teachers and the aides – especially the aides- deserve and need. The City Council holds the purse strings and should step up now to make an additional allocation to the School Committee to help them settle the contract. Then they work on their raises. Mr. Laredo stated earlier that if the Mayor vetoed it they had the votes to override her veto. so this really is all theatre. And to Matthew Miller-perhaps your comment was in jest but it comes off as pretty immature. No need for that-please!
The city council cannot add to the mayoral allocation. They, do however, work in the same building as the mayor and can use their voice to advocate for the resolution of 17 city union contracts.
I support the raises but appreciated that the unresolved employee contracts were brought up during the discussion.
Jess,
The V14 Supreme Council encourages electeds to be self -deprecating. They risk commenting privileges if they don’t make fun of themselves periodically.
It’s said that Laredo has higher political ambitions but moving up will be hard when one will always be known as the Council president who, for a few thousand dollars, led the drive to raise Council salaries against the wishes of the mayor, while our teachers went underpaid and our roads went unpaved. Great political move, Councilor. Looking forward to seeing your name on a contested ballot some day. Don’t be foolish enough to think that nobody will remember, because if they don’t, your opponent will surely remind them that you led the Council money grab.
The city councilors receive both health and pension benefits.
In addition they receive a financial stipend. The council role is not a paid full time or part time job. It is a public service.
I support the Mayor’s veto. Many people will still run for office in the future without the increase.
Monetary compensation should not factor in to whether someone
runs for election. If people run for money their votes on issues
are corrupted.
Another way to look at it: having miserably low stipends makes it difficult or impossible for people of limited means to join the city council.
I believe the CC et al deserved raises, but I have yet to see any justification for why they insisted on increases above what the Blue Ribbon commission recommended. Those extra increases are what caused the veto.
Any Councilor want to explain this?
@Meredith – Councilor Albright weighed in on that topic here.
Newton voters should vote against Councilors that voted themselves a pay raise. This money grab even goes beyond the recommendations of the BRC. It amazes me that the City Council will not even consider cutting the Council size. Then and only then should raises be considered.
To the councilors: this is not the time and place to ask for a raise, especially if the city can’t resolve the other contracts that need a resolution first.
I too would veto your raises. People in the private sector do not get a raise, except when their company or organization is making a big profit.
Newton is overspending it’s money on a too big mayor administration with big salaries, hiring consultants etc., trying to fund the pension plans that the mayors going back to Cohen didn’t fund.
Have a great day you all.