Mount Vernon mayor, other elected officials get jumbo-sized raises of 40% or more
Happy days have arrived for Mount Vernon’s seven elected municipal officials as they await their next paychecks, with jumbo-sized raises approved Tuesday for the city's mayor, City Council and comptroller.
Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard on Tuesday approved annual pay hikes of $57,000 for herself and Comptroller Darren Morton, along with raises of $17,000 a year for members of the Mount Vernon City Council.
The salary increases, which are retroactive to Jan. 1, provide pay hikes of 40%, to $200,000, for the mayor; 46% to $185,000 for the comptroller; and 52% to $50,000 for the City Council members.
The increases won approval 17 years after the city last increased salaries for its elected officials, and two weeks after the City Council voted to send the pay package to Patterson-Howard for approval. She signed the legislation following a three-hour public hearing at City Hall, at which Morton and Patterson-Howard justified the pay hike, and Mount Vernon residents railed against the raises at a time of financial concern.
It comes as the city has yet to address a borrowing plan that Morton will propose that would finance $15.8 million in retroactive pay for city unions by borrowing on Wall Street through the sale of municipal bonds. The city also still owes $6 million to the Mount Vernon school district. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has deemed Mount Vernon is among three school districts statewide that's under "significant" fiscal stress.
Meanwhile, the city’s property-tax levy grew 7.7% in 2024, among the highest in the region.
More: Mount Vernon school district one of three in NY in 'significant' fiscal stress, state says
Patterson-Howard, who started her second term in January, said that wages for Mount Vernon’s elected officials had not kept pace with raises over the past 17 years granted to the city’s unionized employees. She lamented that she made less than Mount Vernon police lieutenants and elementary school principals. She added that the Yonkers City Council in 2023 enacted significant raises for its mayor and council members of a similar magnitude.
Patterson-Howard noted that neither she nor Morton qualify for overtime pay, even though they work what turns out to be no less than an average of 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We not only work, but we work overtime and don’t get compensated for overtime,” she said. “I can tell you that myself and the comptroller put in no less than 100 hours a week.”
Morton declined to respond to the mayor's estimate of his work hours, though Morton, who serves as pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, said he's often works evenings at City Hall as well some weekends after Sunday services. The church on South 9th Avenue is a thriving multi-million dollar enterprise, with programs for senior housing, affordable housing, early childhood education and a variety of community services that address homelessness and food insecurity.
A week ago, Patterson-Howard, who chairs the national African American Mayors Association, pitched the salary package as a taxpayer-financed insurance policy to guard against public corruption.
“You’ve got to be careful because when you don’t pay people the right competitive amount, you then begin to have folks that will do unsavory things and their positions cost you more money,” she said at her March 19 Town Hall meeting at City Hall. “We need to make sure that people are getting what they should be paid.”
Patterson-Howard wants parity
Patterson-Howard said that that her $57,000 raise was warranted because so many other city employees earned more than her ‒ the city’s chief executive officer who runs the city administration. She added that the comptroller deserved an annual raise of $57,000 because other civil servants in his office earned so much more than he does.
She said that in 2007, the Mount Vernon mayor was the city's highest paid official. Today, said she was the 111th highest paid city employee, at $143,000, while 174 city employees earned more than Morton, whose salary was $128,000.
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“I’m the 111th highest paid person in the city, and I run the entire city,” said Patterson-Howard. “How do I get paid 111th? Why does the comptroller have people in his office that make $50,000 more than him, and he has the expertise to oversee them? Because they don’t have to be elected.”
Residents, however, questioned the stunning increases.
“The percentage is too high,” said resident Lauren Carter. “We have record high inflation, and the timing is not right. Raises in private industry are based on performance. Where is the performance that will justify the raises that are proposed?”
Resident John Gallagher said the raises were hidden in the city’s 2024 budget in a contingency account, which is typically used to address emergencies that may arise. He said there was a backroom agreement that only burst into public view this winter when the raises came before the City Council for approval.
“It’s totally wrong,” said Gallagher. “It’s self-benefitting without letting the public know.”
Patterson-Howard that that it was noted during public budget review that there was a pool of money for raises for public officials included in the spending plan.
The raises approved Tuesday by Patterson-Howard arose three months after the Yonkers City Council approved a 46% raise to $225,000 for Mayor Mike Spano and a 38% raise for City Council members. The deal brought Spano an additional $72,400 in retroactive pay, with his salary hike retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023.
The Mount Vernon pay package provides retroactive pay dating back to Jan. 1, 2024, which means Patterson-Howard and Morton will receive $14,250 to cover raises the first three months of 2024 while City Council members will receive $4,250 in retroactive pay.
Morton said the pay package for the seven elected officials will cost Mount Vernon taxpayers about $250,000. He said the increases were less than the rise in the cost of living since these salaries were last raised in 2007. He said they were also in line with raises for the city’s municipal unions.
“If we had a system that gave us raises based on the cost of living, the raises would have been higher than we proposed,” he said.
Unions wait for retro pay
The raises come as the city has yet to pay municipal unions $15.8 million in retroactive pay that’s due from the six-year agreement ratified with several unions last year. He said the city lost its credit rating on Wall Street in 2019 because previous city administration had failed to conduct annual audits of city finances.
Morton said he completed two audits, with two more in the pipeline for 2024. The city’s improved financial outlook allowed him to sell bond anticipation notes valued at $3.2 million in 2023. He hopes to have success with debt financing in 2024 to cover a chunk of the retroactive pay owed the city’s unionized workforce.
He predicted that could take three years.
“I’m working with bond counsel to see if we can cover at least half this, which would allow us to pay it off over a longer period of time, which would have a minimal impact on city taxes,” he said.
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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Vernon elected city officials get huge pay raises of 40% or more
