EASTHAMPTON — The City Council did not approve or reject a pay raise for the mayor Wednesday night, but voted to raise salaries for members of the School Committee and the City Council president.
The proposed increase for the mayor, which sparked the most debate, would raise the salary for the position from $75,000 to $90,000, effective Jan. 2, 2022. The mayor’s salary was last increased in 2016.
The council voted to send the proposed increase back to the Finance Committee, which will discuss a possible incremental raise for the mayor over a four-year period, according to City Councilor and Finance Committee Chairman Dan Rist, rather than implementing the entire raise at once. Related discussion will continue in a public hearing.
Rist supported the pay increase for the mayor, characterizing the position’s current salary as “woefully inadequate.”
Proponents of the raise have said that the increase will help to attract more qualified candidates to run for the position and provide better compensation for the mayor’s workload.
But opponents of the raise argued that the mayor’s current salary is higher than that of most residents in town and said they were concerned about upsetting residents by approving the pay bump during the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting financial crisis.
Some residents expressed concerns that the salary increase would raise taxes for residents, but Councilor Owen Zaret said taxes would not be affected.
“It’s a budgetary change, so it’s just a different allocation of dollars that we’re already paying,” Zaret said, though he noted the raise may lead to “difficult decisions” at budget time.
Mayor Nicole LaChapelle would not benefit from the raise unless she is reelected next year and did not play a role in requesting the pay increase.
With Wednesday night’s vote, the annual salary for the City Council president will increase from $4,000 — the same salary that other councilors earn — to $4,500.
The council voted to increase annual pay for members of the School Committee from $1,400 to $2,000, and to increase the School Committee chairperson’s pay, which was previously the same as other members’ salaries, to $2,250.
The original proposal called for all members, including the chairperson, to receive a salary of $2,000, but Councilor James “JP” Kwiecinski proposed the $250 bump for the chair to make the increase proportional with the City Council president’s raise.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.