The Yonkers City Council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday evening on a pair of bills that would increase the annual salary for all six council members, the council president and the mayor.
The change would bring his current $156,000 salary to $228,000 and include a more than $70,000 one-time bonus for backpay retroactive to January 1, 2023.
Council members would receive salary increases depending on their position including $88,000 for council president, $73,000 for majority and minority leader, $58,000 for all other council members, plus a $15,000 stipend for chairing a committee.
On Monday, Yonkers City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy defended the proposals.
“There is no better time than now to get it done,” she said.
Republican councilman who most recently opposed Spano in a bid for mayor last month said he plans to vote ‘no.’
He called it “unethical” for lawmakers to vote to raise their salaries and was concerned about the mayor’s retroactive pay.
“The increases are a little drastic and they should’ve been done before the elections,” said Yonkers City Councilman Anthony Merante.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told News 12, “The chief executive’s compensation for one of the biggest cities in New York State has remained flat for 20 years. The City Council supports a change in salary to reflect the cost of living and place it more in line with other top elected officials across the State. Even then, this raise is well under two percent a year.”
Spano will likely call for a public hearing in early January if the two bills pass tonight. After that, the city charter only requires the mayor to sign the bills or wait 10 days for them to go into law.
