Carl Weisbrod, as chair of the city Quadrennial Advisory Commission for the Review of Compensation Levels of Elected Officials, along with his colleagues Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and Larian Angelo, had the thankless task of cleaning up the mess caused by former Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, who both foolishly and damagingly refused to set up the panel and broke city law.
Weisbrod stressed in his testimony yesterday that the Council voting itself a pay hike is not the way it should be done and that pay raises should best take effect following an election, but there needs to be an exception now because de Blasio and Adams let things slide for so long.
We unfortunately have to agree, however we urge that the Council start the pay raise for themselves, the borough presidents and three citywide positions of mayor, public advocate and comptroller, on Aug. 1 or even next Jan. 1, instead of backdating the 18.2% raises to Jan. 1, 2026. We have little hope our words will be heeded.
The retroactive raises shouldn’t have happened. The name “quadrennial” should be the key. A group of three experts like Weisbrod and the others needs to be set up by the mayor every four years so that the salaries of the elected officials don’t fall behind.
But de Blasio and Adams both failed. The law requiring the commission be empaneled in January 2020 and January 2024 was actually signed by de Blasio in 2016, upon the recommendation from the previous Quadrennial Advisory Commission, chaired by Fritz Schwarz. The goal was to avoid the Council voting on its own raises. But in January 2020, de Blasio did nothing and in January 2024, Adams did nothing, so now, once again the Council will be voting to boost its own pay.
The U.S. Constitution’s 27th Amendment forbids that, saying: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”
On the state level, the New York Constitution’s Article III §6 says of the Legislature: “Neither the salary of any member nor any other allowance so fixed may be increased or diminished during, and with respect to, the term for which he or she shall have been elected, nor shall he or she be paid or receive any other extra compensation.”
The City Charter needs a similar requirement. As of now the only thing the Charter says, in Section 27 is: “No local law or resolution increasing or decreasing the salaries, or other allowances, in accordance with section 26 shall be adopted during the period between the general election day and the 31st day of December, both such days inclusive, in any year in which all of the Council members are elected.” That was written to prevent a lame duck session coming back after the election to boost salaries, the same trick that Albany uses.
To stop any games, the federal rules, written by James Madison, should be added to the City Charter.
The 18.2% raises come with the proviso that the next Quadrennial Advisory Commission be created in 2028 and have any raises start in 2030, following the 2029 elections. We assume that Mayor Mamdani will sign the pay raises (he is declining to accept the raise), as de Blasio both signed the raises and declined the raise. However, unlike de Blasio, Mamdani must set up the Quadrennial Advisory Commission in 2028.