It took our writing about the actions of the special, once-every-four-years panel that recommends pay hikes for the four statewide elected officials and the 213 members of the Legislature to remind us that there is also is a special, once-every-four-years panel that recommends pay hikes for the three citywide elected officials, five borough presidents, five district attorneys and 51 City Council members.
The local panel, called the Quadrennial Advisory Commission for the Review of Compensation Levels of Elected Officials, was supposed to be appointed between Jan. 1, 2020 and Jan. 15, 2020 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
We wrote an editorial on Feb. 19 that year, reminding de Blasio and urging him to follow the law, but COVID soon arrived and it never happened.
The law, Section 3-601 of the city’s administrative code, says that: “Between the first and 15th day of January, 2020, and during the same period every fourth year thereafter, the mayor shall appoint three persons for the review of compensation levels of elected officials.” So even though de Blasio failed in 2020, this is the “fourth year thereafter,” so the responsibility in 2024 falls to Mayor Adams.
We asked Adams’ office in May if he ever named the panel due in January and asked again this week. No and no. Mind you, we are not advocating raises for the mayor, who makes $258,750 a year (more than the governor’s $250,000) or higher pay for Council members, who are paid $148,500.
What we do want is a regular, ordinary examination of the salaries. If no raises are warranted, the panel can so decide. But by failing to set up the commission, instead of a four-year time between reviews, it stretches to a longer and longer time. And then when raises are needed, even to keep up with inflation, the pay hikes are giant, outraging the public and embarrassing the politicians.
Assuming Adams names a commission now, a low priority among his other concerns (including his criminal indictment) even though law requires so, it will have been another eight years since the last round.
Mike Bloomberg, who took only $1 a year from taxpayers, should have had three panels during his dozen years in office: in 2003, 2007 and 2011. However, he only had a single commission, in 2006. De Blasio was mandated to name a panel in early 2015, but he let it slip to late in the year, making for a nine-year gap from 2006.
The Council then moved the timing from what should have a 2019 panel into 2020, 2024, 2028 etc. But that was blown. The idea behind 2020, 2024 and so forth is that those are years before city elections, with any new, higher pay to take effect only after the election. That avoids the Council and mayor raising their own pay, which has been the unfortunate situation all these years.
The reform was meant to fix that. But the 2025 election year is almost upon us, making it unlikely that there will be any changes in salaries. And it would be terribly wrong to raise salaries after the election, as that is blatant self-dealing, which we were supposed to get away from.
So unless Adams names a panel very fast, the current salaries should stay locked in place until after the 2029 elections. The politicians can’t complain.
