WEST SPRINGFIELD — The West Springfield Town Council officially raised the mayor’s annual salary from $130,000 to $160,000 during its Dec. 2 regular meeting.
The vote from the full council happened just a little over an hour after the town’s Budget Management Subcommittee met to have a robust discussion around the mayor’s salary. Subcommittee chair and At Large City Councilor Jamie Smith told the full council that she proposed a salary increase to $165,000, but the subcommittee shot it down by a 2-1 vote.
Instead, the position will see a $30,000 increase, which will officially go into effect after the next mayoral election season, according to Town Council President Sean Powers.
“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. “It’s an attractive number for anyone running for mayor.”
Not everyone on the council agreed with the $30,000 increase, however. During the meeting, At-Large City Councilor Daniel O’Brien made a motion to keep the mayor’s salary at $130,000 because of the fact that the mayor is an elected official, and not an employee.
He said that only Sharon Wilcox, the head of the town’s Accounting Department, should be the only person in town making over $150,000 a year due to her “unmatched financial expertise.”
“The salary is very generous at $130[,000],” O’Brien said. “We just raised taxes; we’ll raise taxes again. The last thing in the world we should be doing is granting raises to elected officials.”
District 3 Town Councilor Anthony DiStefano was also in favor of keeping the salary at $130,000 because he felt it is a “generous” number when comparing it to surrounding communities. Instead of raising the salary, he said the town should look at attracting candidates in other ways, like changing the charter to allow the mayor to have a job outside of being the mayor.
“That’s currently something that I’ve heard from people who own small businesses that have had them not want to get into running for office because they have to turn away from their business,” DiStefano said.
Despite O’Brien and DiStefano’s remarks, the motion to keep the mayor’s salary at $130,000 was struck down by a 6-3 vote.
In addition to raising the mayor’s salary, the council also voted unanimously to keep the council’s salary at $10,000 a year and the School Committee’s at $5,000 a year.
