Big raises sought for City Hall
Salary board votes for up to 30 percent bump
A board hand-picked by Mayor Martin J. Walsh is calling to raise the salaries of Walsh and the City Council — along with jacking up top City Hall officials’ salary ranges by tens of thousands of dollars — and an official said the Walsh administration wants to see the recommendations “as soon as possible.”
But a fiscal watchdog is warning that Boston needs to put the brakes on massive salary bumps.
“At some point there should come a time where the city just says, ‘Can we afford this? Can we ask taxpayers for more?’ ” said Greg Sullivan, research director at the conservative Pioneer Institute and former inspector general for the state. “It’s kind of a runaway attitude with public employee salaries and benefits. In order to rein in the operating costs of the city there has to be moderation with pay raises.”
The five-member Municipal Compensation Advisory Board, whose members are all appointed by Walsh, voted yesterday to recommend a range of raises to the mayor for further consideration. Walsh can accept, reject or make changes to those recommendations, but the City Council must approve any proposed raises for themselves, the mayor and two dozen top officials whose salary ranges are set by city law.
The council approved raises for itself and Walsh just two years ago, setting the mayor’s salary at $199,000 and their own at $99,500. Walsh is currently taking a salary of $175,000, but previously told the Herald he would not rule out taking his full salary this year — and would not rule out taking the new salary bump of 4.2 percent the board is recommending for both him and the council.
That would put Walsh’s salary at more than $207,000 and a councilor’s salary at $103,000. City Council President Andrea Campbell said she was looking forward to reviewing the board’s report when it is released.
The recommendations also call for drastically increasing salary ranges by 15 percent for top officials such as the city clerk and parks and recreation commissioner. While officials have received raises inside their salary ranges, the ranges themselves have not been changed in years — a 2013 study called for a 10 percent bump but was ignored by then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
And three positions — the city’s CFO, corporation counsel and director of information technology — would see salary range increases of 30 percent. That would make the new minimum $149,500 and the new maximum $214,500 — higher than even Walsh’s salary.
MCAB chairman John Tobin said he was pleased with the board’s recommendations based on a report from Segal Waters Consulting, and said high salary ranges were necessary to draw top candidates.
“There’s high competition for these positions and you have to be competitive,” Tobin said.
If the ranges were approved, any individual salary raises would then be set by Walsh, and a spokeswoman said it was “unlikely” the mayor would give raises at the maximum.
“Mayor Walsh will review the recommendations when he receives them, however it’s unlikely he will increase pay to these levels in the near future,” spokeswoman Nicole Caravella said.
The board has yet to send its official report detailing the recommendations to the council and the mayor, but John Natoli, a special adviser to the city’s office of administration and finance, said Walsh was hungry for the information.
“The administration made it clear to me that they would like this done as soon as possible,” Natoli said at a board meeting yesterday.