City Council Speaker: Report On Exorbitant Pay Raises For Council Members 'Ridiculous'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is blasting a recent report that suggested she and her colleagues were looking for a 71 percent raise.
As WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, the council speaker called reporters to City Hall on Thursday after a Daily News article alleged a number of council members had been holding secret meetings to engineer a pay raise from $112,500 to $192,500.
"Definitely is a ridiculous amount. I'm not sure who's been -- who they've been talking to, who's been talking," Mark-Viverito said.
The city's independent Quadrennial Commission is mulling raises for all lawmakers. It is expected to make a recommendation by year's end.
If the $192,500 pay increase was implemented, it would mean council members would make more than Gov. Andrew Cuomo or members of Congress, Lamb reported.
Mark-Viverito declined to say whether she would support any sort of raise for council members, some of whom offered to exchange ethics reforms for more pay.
One fact said to be spurring the politicians on is that the Los Angeles Council people make $185,000 a year, Lamb reported.
The last raise for council members came in 2006.
The report comes as NYPD police officer with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association protest over a potential 1 percent raise. The officers have been without a contract for six years.
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