Raise for Schenectady mayor proves unpopular

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The mayor’s proposed raise didn’t even last five minutes before the Schenectady City Council tossed it out.

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To read the proposed Schenectady city budget, click here.

City Council members gave the mayor’s $2,900 raise request just two minutes of discussion Thursday before dismissing the idea — and almost all of that time was spent listening to one irate resident.

Thursday morning’s 2009 budget review began with a speech from resident Pat Zollinger, who begged the council to reject the mayor’s raise and threatened to take the issue to a public referendum if they didn’t kill the proposal at once.

“This is an illegal pay raise that he put in this budget for himself,” Zollinger said, objecting to the idea of a politician receiving a raise mid-term.

Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard, who did not receive this year’s budgeted council member raise because she is in the middle of a term, heartily agreed with Zollinger.

“We’re following the rules. That’s why I don’t have the raise,” she said. “He can’t get a pay raise in the middle of his term — it doesn’t make sense.”

Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said the council could legally choose to give the mayor a raise. Zollinger leapt back up to insist that it would be illegal but was reassured by Councilman Mark Blanchfield.

“Jaywalking’s also illegal, but the sense I’m getting is we’re not even crossing the street,” he said, using the analogy to say that the council wouldn’t support the raise.

Councilman Gary McCarthy said the council had never intended to give the mayor annual raises. This year’s $36,000 raise was supposed to last through 2011, he said.

“I thought the agreement was it would be for his term of office,” he added.

Blanchfield agreed but noted that the agreement was never written down.

“What we want to do is look at it at the end of the term,” he said.

Afterward, Mayor Brian U. Stratton indicated that he wouldn’t fight for the raise, which would have brought his salary to $99,607. He wasn’t present for the council discussion.

“If they want to cut it, fine, but it’s not a lot of money,” he said after the meeting, calling the cut a symbolic act.

But he argued that it would be best to raise the salary every year rather than debating it every four years.

“I think you need to do something on a regular basis to make sure the salary keeps pace with inflation,” he said. “Otherwise you go into 2011 with candidates arguing about whether they’re going to take a pay raise.”

Blanchfield has also questioned the mayor’s travel budget — which Stratton overspent by nearly $6,000 this year — but the council did not discuss cutting it.

Stratton said he covered the unbudgeted expense by using part of his $20,000 discretionary fund. For 2009, he proposed reducing the discretionary line to $10,000 while increasing the travel line by $6,500 and his salary by $2,900. The shift would result in his spending $600 less overall next year.

Stratton stressed that all management raises would be withheld until the council signs a deal with the CSEA and AFSCME unions. If city officials ask the unions to accept a zero-percent raise because of poor economic conditions, Stratton said, managers won’t get any raises, either.

“The least fair thing to do would be to give our management raises and tell the unions they have to accept zero,” he said.

In total, $90,000 has been budgeted for management raises.