SPRINGFIELD — An attempt to amend the ordinance around compensation for governing bodies did not secure the necessary two-thirds vote to pass the City Council.
Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila presented a proposal in early December that would have shifted the burden of setting compensation for mayor, City Council and School Committee away from the council.
Instead, Davila’s proposal, which was also sponsored by City Council President Michael Fenton, would have made it so annual compensation for the council, School Committee and mayor would increase annually based on the most recent annual cost-of-living adjustment set by the Springfield Retirement Board.
“What this is seeking to do is to put an end to the discussion by putting a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, which is going to be attached to the Springfield Retirement Board” Davila said during the Dec. 9 meeting.
According to Davila, COLA increases are capped at 2%, which means if the proposal passed, the compensation for councilors, School Committee members and the mayor would have increased by 2% or lower each year.
The council voted 6-5 in favor of passing this new proposal, which did not equate to a two-thirds majority, so the proposed amendment did not pass. Fenton was absent during the meeting due to a family member’s passing.
The amendment, which would have gone into effect in January 2026, failed with no discussion during the meeting.
The last time the council approved compensation raises for the mayor, School Committee and council was at the end of 2022 when the council’s compensation went from $19,500 to $28,000 annually.
School Committee members, meanwhile, went from $12,500 to $18,000 annually and the mayor’s salary increased from $135,000 to $175,000 a year.
The raises were supported by a study conducted Compensation Advisory Committee. According to Compensation Advisory Committee President Vanessa Otero, those raises were the first for the three bodies governing bodies in 10 years.
In early December, the West Springfield Town Council conducted its own discussion around pay raises to its governing bodies. Ultimately, they decided that the mayor’s salary be raised from $130,000 annually to $160,000.
“I do feel just no matter who the mayor is, I do feel that the mayor should be the highest paid employee of the of the town of the city just because he or she is the CEO,” said Town Council Vice President Brian Clune at the time. “It’s an attractive number for anyone running for mayor.”
