(The Center Square) — Good government groups urged the New York City Council on Tuesday to reject a plan to give themselves a pay raise and appoint an independent commission to evaluate compensation for the city’s elected officials.
A bill being considered by the Committee on Governmental Operations, State and Federal Legislation, would boost council members’ annual pay by 16% from $148,500 to $172,500. If approved, the proposed pay hike would also apply to the new mayor, public advocate, comptroller, and borough presidents. It would raise incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pay to nearly $350,000, up from the current $258,000 with benefits.
But government watchdogs urged councilors Tuesday during a public hearing to pause the pay raise proposal, and amend the bill to direct the incoming Mamdani administration to convene an independent commission to weigh compensation for the elected officials.
“I think it doesn’t look right for the City Council to be acting in its own self-interest,” Grace Rauh, executive director of the nonpartisan group Citizens Union, told the panel. “We’re also in a period where democratic norms have been eroded nationally, and in Washington, and so we’re quite concerned about declining trust in government.”
Samantha Sanchez, a policy director at Common Cause New York, told councilors Tuesday that the group isn’t opposed to “fair and reasonable” pay for elected officials, but wants the process to be done in a transparent manner that maintains public trust.
“For more than 50 years, New York City has relied on independent commissions to evaluate compensation for elected officials,” she told the panel. “Allowing elected officials to vote to increase their own compensation, particularly on a retroactive basis, raises procedural concerns and runs contrary to long-standing anti-corruption principles.”
Council members haven’t had a raise since 2016, when their pay increased by more than $30,000 per year. They are among the highest-paid city councilors in major U.S. cities, dwarfed only by Los Angeles and Chicago, according to published data.
Councilwoman Nantasha Williams, a Queens Democrat who filed the pay raise bill, said during Tuesday’s hearing that she isn’t opposed to having an independent commission look at pay raises, but said it could delay the process of approving the plan and noted that “the public has always been upset about any raise, no matter how the raises have come.”
Councilman Lincoln Restler, who chairs the committee, also defended the proposed pay raises and said the data presented with the legislation “shows that an increase is needed” and should be “dealt with swiftly.”
He said, despite the public uproar over the council’s plan to increase its own pay, the cost to the city would pale by comparison to the $2.1 billion impact of raises given to “political appointees” hired by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams during his administration. He said the proposed raises would cost only $1.6 million in the next fiscal year, if approved.
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Restler also pointed to other smaller U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, where elected councilors are paid more than their New York City counterparts.
“It’s never popular to do a pay increase for elected officials. It’s always fraught,” he said in remarks. “But it’s critical that we convince the best and brightest, not just the wealthiest, New Yorkers to make the decision to run for public office.”
