City Council members roll back pay raise
Hike now in line with city’s home rule charter
Pittsburgh City Council members on Saturday voted to scale back a controversial 22% pay increase for themselves this year following questions about the legality of the double-digit hike.
During a special session called by council President Theresa KailSmith, council members unanimously approved an annual salary of $76,544 for 2022, up 6% from $72,211 in 2021.
Members had approved the 22% raise — to $88,000 a year — when approving the Peduto administration’s 2022 budget in December.
On Tuesday, Ms. Kail-Smith froze council’s pay pending a legal review after questions arose over whether the pay hike violated Pittsburgh’s home rule charter.
The vote to lower their raises Saturday came after council members adjourned for a closed executive session for about 90 minutes.
When they returned to the special session, they declined to discuss their vote publicly.
During public comments after the executive session, two residents chastised council members for voting for raises that they should have known violated the charter.
“You know better. Knowing the charter is government 101,” said Judith Ginyard, a former City Council candidate for District 9. “Each of you who voted for this should be impeached.”
“You know what the home rule charter is,” said another resident. “You know the laws. For this to happen was definitely part of you being corrupt. It’s very disgusting. It’s a violation of public trust.”
City Controller Michael Lamb has said the prior increase went against the city’s charter, which says that “no elected city official shall receive a salary increase that exceeds the average percentage increase in salaries and wages paid to all city employees as based on the previous year’s salary.”
According to Mr. Lamb, the average increase was about 3% last year.
“After speaking with our law department, the salary $76,544 is in compliance with the home rule charter,” Ms. Kail-Smith said during Saturday’s special session.
At Tuesday’s meeting when she froze the salaries, she said City Council “has never wanted to go against the charter of the city of Pittsburgh. We took an oath to uphold it and that’s what we intend to do. If it turns out we go back to $72,000, that’s what we’ll do.”
In January, Ms. Kail-Smith defended the double-digit pay hike on KDKA’s Marty Griffin radio show.
“I’m going to say this over and over again. I advocated for this. I think our members earned their pay raise,” she said. “It has been 20 years since they’ve had a significant raise.”