Northampton mayor to get $37.5K pay raise next year; part-time elected officials will also see bump

NORTHAMPTON — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra is set to receive a $37,500 pay increase in her annual salary next year, after a vote to increase the mayor’s salary was unanimously approved by the City Council Thursday night.

The move to increase the mayor’s salary, in addition to granting raises for city councilors and school committee members, came following a report by the Elected Officials Compensation Advisory Board, formed last year to discuss current pay compensation for city officials.

It will be the first salary increase for the city’s chief executive officer in eight years, and the council agreed that the position and its myriad of responsibilities deserves to be better compensated.

“I don’t know if we could ever overstate the power of responsibility that comes from ultimately being the person that’s going to be making the hard decisions, that is going to be the spokesman for making the hard decisions,” said Ward 2 councilor Karen Foster. “It’s the kind of job that never ever turns off.”

Currently, the mayor’s position pays $92,500 a year, ranking 98th overall among city employees, with the mayor’s chief of staff and finance director among the positions with higher salaries. With the pay increase, the mayor would climb to the 16th highest paid city employee.

In its report, the advisory board explained that “Northampton’s mayor is a ‘working mayor’ whose responsibilities include active, hands-on, day-to-day management of the City in addition to their role as political leader and policy maker. The board felt strongly that the mayor’s salary should be competitive to attract and retain competent public servants.”

Sam Hopper, a member of the advisory board, explained how members determined the mayor’s salary.

“We did a benchmark with the mayor’s position, both with other communities that were similar to us, but really looking at who it is that the mayor is supervising and where the mayor ranks within there,” Hopper said. “The mayor is the CEO of the city and has different responsibilities and powers compared to part-time elected officials.”

The nearby communities that the board looked at for comparison were Pittsfield, Greenfield, Agawam, West Springfield, Westfield and Easthampton. With the pay raise, Northampton’s mayor will now make more than counterparts in any of those municipalities.

Councilors agreed that the mayor’s position should pay more.

Ward 5 councilor Alex Jarrett, however, raised concerns about the effects of pay inequality the new salary might bring, compared to the wages of other full-time city employees.

“Most of those salaries are not directly within our purview, but this one is, so I think we need to take this seriously,” he said. “This is not a question about this particular mayor. This is about the mayor’s salary long-term.”

Ward 4 councilor Garrick Perry agreed that wage inequality among city employees was worth examining in detail, but he was comfortable with giving the mayor the recommended amount.

“One of the things that struck me my first time as councilor, was the pay for the mayor and where it fit among other city employees. I was shocked at how little the mayor was making,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is becoming the mayor to get a huge paycheck.”

Councilor-at-large Marissa Elkins also defended the mayor’s pay raise.

“When we’re talking about levels of management, about supervision and responsibilities of the job, it is really significant that a large percentage of people the mayor supervises make more than she does,” she said.

The new mayoral salary will put Northampton well above the other communities studied, where the average salary is $102,700. By comparison, the mayor in Easthampton makes $83,000, in Greenfield the salary is around $90,000, and in West Springfield it’s $120,000.

Council, elected schoolofficials also get bump

The council also voted to approve increased compensation for several part-time city officials, including their own positions and for elected school representatives.

Councilors in the next term, following this fall’s elections, are in line to nearly double their pay from $9,000 a year to $16,931 a year, with the city council president position receiving $21,164 a year.

School committee members and trustees for Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School will receive a pay increase from $5,000 a year to $9,312 a year, and for city councilors pay to go from $9,000 a year to $16,931 a year.

In its report, the advisory board also recommends that elected officials receive 2% cost-of-living increases in 2025 and subsequent years in which the board does not meet, and it made no changes to health insurance and retirement benefits available to all of the elected positions it analyzed. The council agreed with these recommendations.

The advisory board determined that offering higher and more competitive salaries would help to attract qualified candidates and encourage contested elections, as well as increase the diversity of elected officials.

All pay increases are set to take effect Jan. 2, 2024. While the councilors and elected school officials will get the raise at the start of a new term, Sciarra is in the middle of a four-year term and will receive the pay bump before the next election.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at [email protected].