Jamestown Salary Review Commission presents to City Council (December 12, 2022)

The Jamestown Salary Review Commission has recommended increasing City Council and the Mayor’s salaries.

Members of the commission presented their recommendations to City Council at its work session Monday night.

Commission President Tage Hall said they recognize wage increases are not popular but feel raises are long overdue, “We provided a range for both the Mayor’s salary and council’s salaries. And looking at it, compared to even our area, it’s underpaid. We all kind of came to that agreement that these positions are certainly underpaid. So, we took that seriously and we believe that the time is right. We’ve looked at cost of living adjustments. We think even the council’s salary hasn’t been increased since the mid ’80s.”

The recommendations including raising the Mayor’s salary from $72,000 to between $80,000 to $90,000; increasing City Council members’ stipend from $5,000 to $7,500; and increasing the City Council President’s stipend from $6,000 to $9,000.

City Council’s stipend hasn’t changed since 1984 with the Mayor’s salary remaining the same since 2008.

Corporation Counsel Elliot Raimondo, who also sat on the commission, said if salaries had stayed current with inflation, City Council members would be making $14,000 a year as well as having City Healthcare, “The Mayor would be at $101,000 if we kept up with inflation throughout all of these years. With that being said, I spoke with numerous city council members, on average, and I’d like to say more because many city council members told me more, on average city council members are working 40 hours per month at this, which amounts to $15 per hour with the raises we have proposed for this group.”

Council President Tony Dolce said Council will discuss and vote on the recommendations at its January meetings. If any of the recommendations are passed, the new salaries would not go into effect until January 2024.

Jamestown Salary Review Commission holds first meeting (October 18, 2022)

The Jamestown Salary Review Commission is looking at options for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities to pay a stipend toward an increase in the Mayor’s salary.

The Commission held its first meeting Tuesday to discuss salaries for the Mayor and City Council. By City Charter, the advisory commission is required to meet every four years and present a recommendation for any adjustments to salaries to City Council. Council then can choose to accept or take no action. Any changes would not go into effect until January 1, 2024.

City Corporation Counsel Elliot Raimondo made a suggestion that the commission approach the Jamestown BPU about contributing to the mayor’s salary, “One of the suggestions we had is that the Mayor in his current role serves as Chairman of the BPU Board. The Commission, as a whole, would like to know how much time the Mayor is spending as the Chairman of the BPU Board and whether that time should be compensated by the BPU Board. So that is something we have to explore as a Commission.”

The mayor’s salary is $72,000 and hasn’t been increased since 2008. Council member salaries are $5,000 with the Council President receiving an additional $1,000 stipend. Those salaries haven’t been increased since 1984.

Commission member Pat Smeraldo asked how much salaries have increased for union contracts going back five years, now that all bargaining units are current. Raimondo replied that with looking back five year until now, it’s a 10-12% increase.

General consensus by members is that both the mayor and city council have had an increased workload, especially with social media making it easier to reach out to elected officials.

Tage Hall was selected as the Chair of the Commission. Their next meeting will be 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 15, 2022.