Yonkers Mayor Spano gets 46% raise, $72K in retroactive pay as 4th term begins in 2024

Santa has arrived early to Yonkers City Hall, with a satchel filled with raises for City Council members and Mayor Mike Spano that were approved Tuesday.

There'll be a little something extra in Spano’s stocking.

His big present will be a 46% raise to $228,500 as he moves forward into his fourth term, which was made possible a year ago after the City Council extended term limits for themselves and the mayor.

His stocking stuffer is a check for $72,400 in retroactive pay, dating back to Jan. 1, for the last year of his third term.

City Council members, meanwhile, will see raises that range from 30% for City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy, 38% for rank-and-file legislators, and 40% for the Council’s minority and majority leaders.

Tax Watch has learned that funding for the raises was included in the 2023-24 city budget, for the fiscal year that began on July 1. The budget passed on May 26, a month before the three-way Democratic primary for mayor, and almost six months before the general election in November.

“We wanted to give the mayor a raise in June, but he said he wasn’t comfortable receiving it then,” said City Councilwoman Shanae Williams, D-Yonkers, a Spano ally who will join the Westchester County Board of Legislators in January. “He didn’t want to be criticized for accepting a raise for another term.”

Spano’s raise will be the first for a Yonkers mayor since 2004, when the City Council approved a raise for incoming mayor Phil Amicone.

There’s no need under the Yonkers charter for a public hearing on changing the charter to boost Spano’s pay or to enact a local law for the City Council raises, said Collins-Bellamy. In Yonkers, a public hearing on such matters would only be held after the City Council approves the raises.

More: 14 relatives of Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano work for the city. Is that too many?

Hearing will proceed Spano action

The public hearing will be held before Spano acts on the legislation. Spano spokeswoman Christina Gilmartin said the hearing would take place in January.

Don’t expect Spano to be swayed as he begins his fourth, and supposedly, final four-year term under the latest change in the Yonkers term-limit law — which limited Spano to just two terms when he was first elected in 2011.

Only a Spano veto would stop the raises, which portends a most prosperous New Year for himself and his fellow elected official. The raises would become law if he signs the laws, or simply lets them age for 10 days after the hearing, said Gilmartin.

“The chief executive’s compensation for one of the biggest cities in New York State has remained flat for 20 years,” she said. “The City Council supports a change in salary to reflect the cost of living and place it more in line with other top elected officials across the State.  Even then, this raise is well under two percent a year.”

The City Council last awarded its members a raise in 2015. Their pay includes base salaries plus a stipend for chairing a committee, which every member does, said Collins-Bellamy. The stipend would rise from $5,000 to $15,000.

Overall pay for the board president will rise from $79,000 to $103,000. The board’s minority and majority leaders, who are elected by the panel every two years, will see their pay rise from $63,000 to $88,000. The other Council members would see their pay rise from $53,000 to $73,000.

Council members also receive health insurance benefits and a city car.

Councilman Anthony Merante, a Republican who lost his bid to oust Spano in November, was the sole vote against the raises on Tuesday. He said he'll donate $500 each month from his increased salary to nonprofits in the 6th District.

That's $6,000 from his raise of at least $20,000.

"Many politicians have forgotten that they are public servants, which means serving the public, not themselves," he said. "When you run for public office, everyone knows what the salary is. If the pay scale is not satisfactory, just don't run."

More: How Lenny Spano rose to assistant DPW commissioner in Uncle Mike's Yonkers administration

Former Council president: 'Why voters don't trust politicians'

Former City Council President Mike Khader, who was defeated by Collins-Bellamy in 2021, wondered if the pay-raise package was in the works behind the scenes a year ago during the contentious City Council battles over extending the term limits law to let Spano run for a fourth term.

The vote on the pay raises was scheduled for mid-December, during the holiday season, a month after the votes were counted in the 2023 election.

“This is why voters don’t trust politicians,” said Khader. “It’s why Yonkers is the laughing stock of Westchester.”

Councilman John Rubbo, D-Yonkers, said the City Council delayed approving the raises to avoid the disruption of negotiations with municipal employee unions before they settled those contracts.

“The money was there,” said Rubbo. “The reason our vote was held off was that we wanted to make sure all the union contracts were wrapped up.”

It’s not unusual for municipal unions to continue bargaining after their contracts expire, and then receive retroactive pay for those years. Spano spokeswoman Gilmartin said the mayor’s retroactive pay was in line with the one-time checks issued to union members when their contracts get settled.

“It’s no different,” said Gilmartin.

Ken Girardin, research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative Albany-based group that studies state and municipal spending, said he was unaware of any other government in New York that has granted a retroactive raise to an elected official.

“The city can’t point to any goods or services they are getting for this payment," he said. "It’s one thing to give retroactive pay that’s forced by state collective bargaining. It’s another story entirely when it’s done for elected officials.”

But Gilmartin said that the state Legislature approved retroactive raises for the governor and lieutenant governor in 2019. New York City granted retroactive pay to elected officials in 2016.

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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: Yonkers NY Mayor Spano gets raise for himself, city council in 2024