Major Pay Increases For De Blasio Staffers Leave Many Rankled
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio was very generous with his staff last year, but some have been questioning how much some city workers are getting paid.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, all but a few of Mayor de Blasio's nearly 500 staff members got pay raises in the last year, and more than 90 of them of them got double-digit increases.
It added up to an extra $2 million on the city payrolls, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.
The mayor wouldn't discuss it on Friday when CBS2's Christine Sloan asked him about it.
"How can you justify a $2 million raise for staffers in this economy, mayor?" Sloan asked as the mayor left waved and left the room.
But a spokesman for the mayor said the raises were necessary because, "we seek to retain valuable, skilled staff and... must offer competitive wages and incentives."
The head of the city's largest police union was quick to issue a response to that. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said, "If Mayor de Blasio truly believes these words, he should work on closing the competitive pay gap for New York City police officers"
The PBA has turned down the city's offer of a 10 percent increase in 7 years.
But at City Hall last year, one assistant's salary nearly tripled. The city said she left city hall for another job and came back to a big promotion and increased workload.
The cook at Gracie mansion also got a double-digit pay hike, but the city said he also got a new title and big increase in responsibilities.
CBS2 asked City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito if she thought the raises were appropriate.
"Anytime there's any conversation about increases, people react, but in government, you obviously want to be able to maintain and keep in place people that are qualified," Mark-Viverito said.
There was no comment from city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
But taxpayers were skeptical.
"There are people who are struggling in the city and haven't gotten any pay increases at all," one man said.
According to the Empire Center, which released the report, raises were harder to come by at City Hall in the final year of the Bloomberg administration. Only 32 employees had raises of 15 percent or more, but only one of them got a new title with that raise.
A city employees' union recently accepted an increase of 10 percent over 7 years. The PBA has turned down a similar offer.