Battling City Council Rejects 10% Pay Raise

After bickering for 20 minutes, City Council members on Wednesday scrapped a proposal to raise their salaries 10%, the first suggested raise in two years.

On a 4-1 vote taken shortly after midnight, the council members opted not to raise their salaries to $13,572 annually. Instead, the five elected leaders will keep their $12,312 salaries.

The raise issue turned nasty in the final minutes of the council’s last meeting before its August recess, with Councilwoman Elois Zeanah and Mayor Mike Markey trading volleys.

Zeanah made a motion to only accept a raise if her colleagues agreed to cut their travel and dining expenses--an allusion to her belief that Markey and others spend too much of the city’s money. Markey countered that raises should be tied to the number of hours council members spent at City Hall--a hint that Zeanah didn’t spend enough time familiarizing herself with city issues.

Both motions were rejected on split votes.

Councilwoman Judy Lazar, who had previously suggested a more modest raise of 4%--an amount in line with the raises city employees receive--never had a chance to introduce a motion.

Instead, Markey made a motion in favor of no raise. It passed with Lazar dissenting.

Several residents had spoken in favor of a raise.

Other residents had argued that the council was too quarrelsome to deserve a raise.