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Date: 5/23/2023
NORTHAMPTON — During a meeting on May 18, the city’s Elected Officials Compensation Advisory Board presented recommendations to the City Council for raising the salaries for elected officials in Northampton.
The report recommends that the salary for the mayoral position be increased from $92,500 a year to $130,000 a year since the position requires rigorous work demands that preclude outside employment.
According to the board’s report, the mayor’s salary currently ranks 98th amongst city salaries in Northampton, but if the number were increased to $130,000, the mayor position’s salary would rank 16th amongst city salaries.
“What we’ve seen, not only with the current mayor, but with the previous mayor, is there’s been an increase in the amount of time that is required on behalf of the mayor,” said John Bidwell, the chair of the advisory board.
The report also recommends that the salary for ward councilors be increased from $9,000 to $16,931; that at-large councilors be increased from $9,500 to $16,931, and that the City Council president’s salary be increased from $10,000 to $21,164.
According to Bidwell, the board found that ward councilors and at-large councilors spent an average of 20 hours a week on their council work.
Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge said during the council meeting that she spends even more time than that doing council work in a given week. “We’re a very busy council,” LaBarge said. “It’s not just the meetings; it’s the obligation we have for people in the entire city of Northampton and our wards. It’s a lot of work.”
Councilor Karen Foster added that compensation for elected officials is historically kept low because municipalities tend to play a “chess game” with the budget.
“I don’t know if I’d call being an elected official at this level a job, but it’s a huge responsibility, and it’s a public service, and there’s compensation that needs to happen for that,” she said.
As for School Committee, the board is recommending that salaries for ward and at-large members, as well as the salaries for those on the Trustees of Smith, be increased from $5,000 to $9,312.
Despite these increases, Javier Luengo-Garrido, a member of the board, said that the new salaries presented to the full council are still a “pretty low ceiling.” As someone who works for the ACLU of Massachusetts, Luengo-Garrido said he is very aware of how often elected officials work, and how the amount of hours they work can vary, and most elected officials in surrounding communities are usually under-compensated.
He added that if a prospective elected official does not have someone supporting them financially or if they are retired without a good pension, then becoming an elected official for the current amount of money is most likely not an option.
“I would encourage you to advocate for the ceiling we’re giving you, because going lower would be a bad idea,” Luengo-Garrido said. “I know you’re going to hear from the community members that you are just raising your own salaries…but you’re not doing that. You are raising a salary to a position to improve it systemically.”
Part of the hope with these recommended increases is to increase diversity on the board and encourage fair elected representation of underserved communities that traditionally have not been well-represented and have historically been denied equity.
Luengo-Garrido mentioned, for example, that he has been waiting a lifetime for a Latino representative on the council, and Foster mentioned how the city needs to be a leader when it comes to properly compensating elected officials.
“This is a higher recommendation than surrounding communities,” said Foster. “And yet, if we are going to increase the diversity and make it more sustainable for people to serve in these positions, then it’s actually incumbent on us to be leaders in that role.”
The City Council created the advisory board back in December to task them with reviewing the “adequacy and equity of compensation, benefits, and expense allowances of municipal elected officials and reporting its findings and recommendations to the mayor and City Council.” The board met from January to May and solicited input from elected officials about salary through interviews, Q & As and a survey.
Throughout those months, the board deliberated on several different items including the adequacy of current salaries and stipends, how to better attract qualified candidates, how to attract candidates with diverse talents and backgrounds, how to encourage a diverse candidate pool that fairly represents the diversity of the city’s population, and how to improve the compensation review process.
“I really think [the increases] is going to enable more diversity in the city, and go after our values and goals as a city to be more diverse and have a different variety of people on the council that we’ve never had before,” Councilor Jamila Gore said.
The next step is for an ordinance to be presented at the next council meeting on June 1. A decision regarding the salaries must be made by June 30.