By Eric Wolf Schoen
There they go again! By the time you read this article, the Yonkers City Council will probably approve raises for themselves and the Mayor that could be as high as 46%. Yes friends, 46%. Didn’t you get a 46% increase the last time your boss raised your salary. And in the case of the Mayor, the raise will include ‘retroactive’ pay of some $72,400. You can’t make this stuff up.
When did the Council announce they would be voting on raising their salaries and that of the Mayor? After Primary Day and Election Day which was just a month ago. If they announced it before then, do you think the outcome of the election might have been different. Is the Council required to have a public hearing on this? You guessed it, nope!
This speaks to the problem with these proposed raises. The Council vote on the raises was first announced in the meeting call for the City Council Meeting on December 12, Tuesday of this week via the distribution of the City Council Agenda last Friday. So you have a full 5 days to make your voice heard Yonkers. Not enough time.
It’s these last minute announcements that get people crazy and fed up with the Yonkers City Council. The money for the raises was included in the budget for Fiscal year 2023-2024 which was approved last year in June. 7 months ago! And the Council just so happened to put it on the agenda in the middle of the holiday season when people aren’t paying much attention to what’s going on in City Hall.
Folks are busy making gingerbread houses or potato latkes (pancakes) or preparing for Kwanza Karamu, the most important meal of the holiday which takes place on the sixth night. The affairs of Yonkers City government Right now are not on peoples minds.
The then City Council played a game like this when they increased term limits with little notice from 3 to 4. Could the term limits vote have been a quid pro quo or deal for the salary increases? Why does it look strangely like that. And may I remind you that together with an increasing salary the City Council and Mayor get full health benefits paid for by the city as well as a city gassed up and maintained vehicle for their use. Take it from me, the free health benefits they get are better than those most people in Yonkers get, and after working a certain number of years they are eligible for a pension together with those health benefits free for life!
As the song brothers Ira and George Gershwin composed for the the Broadway musical film ‘A Damsel in Distress’ in 1937 says, it’s ‘Nice Work if You Can Get It!’
Some proposed numbers. The salary for the Mayor will increase 46% to $228,500. He will get over $72,000 in retroactive pay. The City Council President’s pay will increase 30%, 38% increase for City Councilpersons, 40% increase for Majority and Minority Leaders and Committee Chairs will receive an additional $15,000 for their work. Pretty much everybody gets an increase over their base pay.
The Mayor’s retroactive pay seemed a bit odd as taxpayers get nothing for this. A City spokeswoman told my colleague Journal News Tax Watch columnist David McKay Wilson that the Mayor’s retroactive pay is in line with the 1 time checks issued to union members when a contract is settled. She said the State Legislature approved retroactive raises for the Governor and Lt. Governor in 2016.
We need to learn in Yonkers that just because some other party in government does something like retroactive raises doesn’t mean Yonkers has to do it to. It’s like the $15,000 stipend given to the School Board President because other districts give their School Board Presidents $15,000, a move by the Board of Education Mayor Spano agreed with me was wrong. This was the first time in the history of the Yonkers Board of Education that a trustee got paid for his work, hundreds of people volunteering without pay to do the job since the district was created. Like the $15,000 and retroactive pay, you have to watch these things cause they can spread like wildfires!
Councilman John Rubbo told my colleague Wilson that the Council ‘delayed approving Raises to avoid disruption of negotiations with municipal unions before settling contracts.’ One has nothing to do with the other. If Yonkers can’t it’s act together settling union contracts before the old ones expire, then maybe it needs someone fresh to negotiate contracts and a new way of thinking taking the election cycle out of the process.
The Mayor will hold a public hearing on the raises sometime after the first of the year. If you don’t show up and object to the raises and what is occurring here or at least call the Mayor’s office at 914-377-6300 to voice your concerns, you have only yourself to blame for the games they play in the City of Gracious Living!
INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION BACK TO WORK
Tuesday afternoon, right before press time the New York Court of Appeals ordered the Independent Redistricting Commission back to work to redraw its Congressional map to return control of the states 26 Congressional districts to the New York State Legislature. The new map must be completed by February 28 of next year. The court said the neutral lines imposed for last years election were a temporary fix.
Though Democrats liked the decision, how fair is it to someone who wants to run for Congress and with legal battles won’t know the district lines for months. Like County Executive George Latimer who was going to battle Congressman Jamaal Bowman based on the current lines. Will a set of approved Congressional lines be in place far enough in advance to complete all that is necessary for the Congressional primaries next year (I.e petitions) allowing time for candidates to campaign and debate the issues?
Another fine mess!
BRIEFS:
My condolences to the Spano family on the loss of matriarch Josephine Spano. What a nice lady! I have known the Spano family since they sold dry ice out of a vending machine on Riverdale Ave next to their garage many moons ago. Years ago Josephine and I met by chance at the doctors offices on North Broadway. All I could think of was with 16 kids how much time she must spend in those offices! Several years ago I ran into her at WESTCHESTER County Airport heading to Florida as I was. All I could think of was with such a large family she truly deserved a nice vacation. May her memory serve as a source of inspiration for her family and all Yonkersites!
With all the antisemitism in this country today, so happy to see that Yonkers has increased the number of menorah lightings, a new one this year at DPW headquarters onNepperhan Avenue. Kudos to Chabad at Greystone Jewish Center and Rabbi Hurwitz for providing the guidance and inspiration for so many of them.
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com, or friend him on Facebook Eric Schoen…just look for him in the picture with Joan Rivers!
