Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino said he opposes the pay raise proposed by the Officers Compensation Committee that would increase the mayor’s and the council members’ annual salaries.
“I’m against the raise because the city charges the maximum tax rate, uses special assessment districts to fix its failing infrastructure, has increased fees across the board,” Paladino said. “Our citizens pay enough as it is.”
The mayor currently makes $3,700 annually and members of the Hillsdale City Council make $1,430 each. If passed, this bill would raise the mayor’s annual pay to $25,000 and the city council members’ salary to $10,000 each. The compensation board voted 3-2 on Thursday to recommend the changes, and the city council will vote on the pay raises at its April 21 meeting.
“The current form of city government is such that we have expert-driven, managerial, bureaucratic, leftist local government,” Paladino said. “In any form of progressive governance, the elected officials are constantly neutered. They’re constantly given directive by the experts and aren’t exercising independent judgement or will. All of these things add up to suggest that the elected officials shouldn’t get a raise.”
Paladino said the raise would be detrimental because the city’s form of government has not changed from a city manager system, in which the city council hires the city manager to oversee daily operations and implement policies.
“If the city wants to change the form of government, we should do that and then change the pay along with it,” Paladino said. “But, as it is, we would have a city manager who makes $210,000 a year to oversee the BPU and the city administrations, and a council that would be compensated about $100,000 but have no additional work to do. I don’t know that it would necessarily incentivise them to do work.”
Paladino said he tries to be a “scrupulous observer of the law,” even if he disagrees with certain ways the council functions.
“The local Officers Compensation Commission is a progressive, leftist innovation of the worst possible kind,” Paladino said. “It gives control over salaries to an unelected body. In any republican form of government, the elected officials themselves, or the voters, through their authority over the charter, should set the salary.”
Council members will do more or less work based on their love or passion for it, according to Paladino.
Russell Richardson, the chair of the Officer’s Compensation Committee, said he was shocked when he learned how little the council members make and that he tried to call another meeting to re-discuss the raise.
“Unprompted, the city manager intervened and asked the city attorney to prevent us from meeting again, demanding that our previous decision, which I had not submitted to council, be final,” Richardson said. “The bylaws of our committee leave open the question of revisiting a decision that hasn’t yet been sent to council. From this ambiguity the city staff derive ‘no basis’ for my committee to remeet. Such ambiguity could be interpreted charitably, in line with the wishes of the citizens of Hillsdale.”
According to Richardson, Robert’s Rules of Order, a guide for conducting meetings and making decisions within groups, allows for revisions of previous decisions based on new information and a desire of one majority member to change his vote.
“The basis for reconsideration is there if city staff was willing to see it,” Richardson said.
Timothy Green, another member of the Officers Compensation Committee, said he supports the raise.
“I am for the raise for a simple reason. I want to see our mayor and council be more involved in the deliberation of policy,” Green said. “We have a deliberative form of government and the council members should have the bandwidth to engage in that. More pay sends signals to current and future council members. You must discuss, you must be capable, you must be engaged. This is a job, and you don’t need to be self-sufficient or retired to do this work.”
Elizabeth Schlueter, a Hillsdale resident, said no one should be involved in city government for the pay, but was surprised to learn how little the mayor and city council members earn.
“In the context of the whole city budget, this is probably less than the city pays for office supplies and toilet paper at city hall,” Schlueter said.
It is justified to raise pay for elected representatives because they play an essential role in serving Hillsdale’s citizens, according to Schlueter.
“I do not think this recommendation is beyond the pale at all, nor do I see convincing evidence that it is driven by some sort of dark conspiracy on the part of the mayor pro tem,” Schlueter said. “Everyone should take a deep breath and recognize that we are all working to improve this city, and that our elected representatives, as well as city staff, deserve our respect and the benefit of the doubt, even when we disagree on a particular policy.”
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