Contradictory Proposal Appears to Call for Automatic Mayoral Pay Raises

A Republican City Council member is proposing a contradictory proposal that appears to contemplate a process for pay raises for the New Britain’s mayor and certain other officials in the event future Councils chose not to vote to increase the salaries of those officials.

The proposal, by Republican Ald. Robert Smedley (R-4), says that it is intended, “to provide for a mechanism for annual salary increases for the Mayor, Town Clerk, Tax Collector, Registrar of Voters and Corporation Counsel.” All of those positions, with the exception of the Democratic Registrar of Voters, are presently occupied by Republicans.

In October, Republican Council members, on a party-line decision, voted to increase salary of office mayor and the other positions by 13% – increasing the mayor’s position from $87,971 to, apparently, $99,407, effective after the next city election.

City ordinances presently provide for the appointment of a Compensation Committee of the Council every two years, to, “undertake a study in order to make a recommendation with respect to a salary adjustment for elected and appointed officials.”

The Council’s Compensation Committee considers raises for the different officials and reports its recommendations back to the full Council. The Council, then refers the recommendations to another of its committees for a public hearing and then decides whether raises for the different elected and one appointed official are in order.

Smedley’s proposal would add a new layer to the pay increase process, apparently providing that, if the Council does not chose to approve salary increase for the mayor, town clerk, tax collector and corporation counsel and registrars of voters, that these officials would automatically get annual raises, anyway.

However the proposal also appears to contradict itself. For example, the proposal says that the pay increases for the position of mayor would be effected by a new provision that says,

Effective the Tuesday following the mayoral election of November 2022 and each applicable year thereafter, if and only if there is no salary modification by a resolution adopted by a majority vote of the common council following the process set forth in subsections (1), (2) and (3) of this section and Section 4-11 of the Charter, the Mayor shall receive 1.5% cost of living increase. In no event shall the Mayor receive more than one salary increase per year.

But the proposal also expands upon an existing ordinance provision saying that, “The compensation of elected or appointed officials shall not be adjusted unless by a resolution adopted by a majority vote of the common council following the process set forth in subsections (1), (2), (3), (6), (7) and (8) of this section.” The apparently contradictory subsections refer explicitly to each other.

The apparent contradiction makes the effect of the entire proposal unclear.

Smedley’s proposal also appears to contradict the City Charter’s provision concerning pay increases for the officials. The Charter explicitly provides for determining salary increases for the officials, once ever two years, by the Council. That Charter provision says that,

Except as prohibited by the State of Connecticut Constitution the Common Council shall review, establish and Act upon in even-numbered years the rates of compensation for (1) the members of the succeeding Common Council, (2) the Mayor, (3) the Collector of Taxes, (4) the City and Town Clerk, (5) the Registrars of Voters, (6) the Corporation Counsel, (7) the Clerk of Committees, (8) the Treasurer and (9) other officers, department heads and employees subject to the provisions of the budget contract, collective bargaining agreement or other agreement.

Key parts of Smedley’s proposal say they are triggered by, “the mayoral election of November 2022,” though there is no mayoral election in New Britain in 2022. The next city elections are in 2021 and the following are in 2023.

The raises contemplated in the proposal for the positions of town clerk, tax collector and corporation counsel and registrars of voters would be based on AFSCME union Local 1186 salary increases. The salary increase contemplated for the office mayor would 1.5% per year, even if the union workers do not receive raises.

The proposed ordinance is on the agenda of the December 9, 2020 Council meeting. As an ordinance proposal, it would likely be referred by the Council on December 9th to one of its committees for a public hearing and consideration on a later date.