ORDNC-2024-1 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 48-1 Mayor Part A Salary by adding additional compensation to take effect beginning January 1, 2026.

Transcript (~19 min @ 1:25:52)

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▶ 1:25:50 Ryan Williams: We are back in session for the Legal and Legislative Committee of the City Council. Uh, we have one order before us tonight. This is ordinance number 2024 dash one, amending the Melrose Revised Ordinances, chapter 48, 1 Mayor, part a salary by adding additional compensation to take effect beginning January 1st, 2026. We have a representative from the administration here, and so I'll motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules.

▶ 1:26:19 Speaker 3: Motion to suspend the rules?

▶ 1:26:20 Ryan Williams: No, I'm motioning by unanimous consent. Oh, then yes. Okay. Unanimously, we have all agreed we'll suspend the rules. Yes. Um, hearing no objections and only one supportive comment. Thank you. The rules are now suspended. And, uh, so Mayor Broder, would you like to speak on the order? Sure.

▶ 1:26:38 Paul Brodeur: This is something that, you know, from my own perspective, I suppose should have happened around 2014 or 2016. Uh, but it didn't and that's fine. Um, I sent you all the bit of information. So just for the public that we're talking about, um, the proposition of raising the salary of the mayor, um, the reason why it seems a little bit unusual because it won't take effect until, um, the way as proposed by me, it's two phases. One in January 1st, 2016 to 1 37 5, and then to 150,001 fiscal year after that. The current salary is $125,000. There is some kind of stipend of six to $7,000 for travel or some expenses, whatever that may be, that would not be affected by this. Um, I, the reason for the timing is because that is what a combination of state law and our charter require, the proposition basically being, um, no disrespect, but lame ducks can't vote for stuff like this. And there should be an intervening election so that the public can, um, can thank you or vent their wrath on you, depending on, depending on their, uh, their reception of the re receptiveness to the idea. Um, it is, in my opinion, it is long time. We have not kept up. You have some data that was compiled by, um, Parla, our human resources director, um, that specifically around mayoral salary. It's not all perfect in the sense that, um, some folks get colas, uh, some folks get other expenses, some folks might get an annuity. Um, Everett is very high on the longevity bonus as a very substantial way to increase the, um, the compensation of the chief executive. Um, I, I really don't wanna belabor because I think the facts are, are obvious, quite frankly. The, um, you know, it's a hundred million dollar corporation that makes, um, you know, the, the, the CEO of which makes, um, a little less than double what a, um, graduate from Lafayette College makes right out of the gate. I only know that 'cause they sent me a piece of mail soliciting some money. Um, today, um, western mass small communities make a little bit more bigger communities make, uh, make a little bit less. Um, it's a matter of attracting and retaining talent. It is a matter of just what, you know, keeping, keeping up, um, with the workplace. And one thing that is a little bit unusual about doing the comps is that, you know, there's kind of two different kinds of, of city leader. There is the mayor, which about 40, 45 in Massachusetts, and then there is the town administrator at town manager. Um, I gave you some information on, on that because I think those jobs are roughly comparable. Uh, the difference between a town manager or administrator is not elected. They're hired by the select board, which is in fact, uh, elected. But in terms of day-to-day running, making, uh, policy decisions, making budget decisions leading that process, um, they're roughly, they're roughly the same. The, um, a couple of interesting stories or some of the comps that you've seen, um, Stoneham, I think it's around 180 7 at, oh, one of the figures in front of me, um, Wakefield, they just went over, um, 200,000, um, former mayor of Melrose is now the administrator in Linfield, just got a raise to 215,000, uh, per year. That is not at all uncommon. Yours truly accepted to be a mayor and then go for greener passengers into town administrator or town manager, land mayor, um, mayor Howard did that in Malden, mayor Wong from, uh, Fitchburg did that in, in Winchester. It is not at all, again, it's not at all an uncommon, uh, uh, practice. Uh, you all know it, it doesn't affect me. It does not put a dollar in my pocket. It doesn't go to pension, uh, or, or anything like that. Uh, but I do think it is particularly given the delay, the fact that it hasn't gone up since, I wanna say 2012, don't hold me to that, uh, that it's never been c So it always has to go before the council. And the fact that the difference between, uh, an administrator and mayor is that the administrator typically gets a contract three or four years. Uh, there's typically a cola built in so they can, and so they can gradually act to increase as a contract matter. Whereas for, for a mayor, you're sense this, this situation that we're in isn't that unusual given that you have to have an intervening election, meaning at least two years right before that, before any raise can take effect other than a cola, which would be considered, which would be considered part of the race. Uh, I think there's a lot of wisdom to it. Um, happy to get you more information. Uh, just so you all know, you can't vote on this, as I said, but it, it, it is worthy of debate. I have shared the information I've shared with you with the incoming counselors, so they're up to speed kind of on the parameters of what, of what we would be talking about. And, uh, there it is. So anyone have any questions? Um, generally, practically, whatever the case may be, I'm happy to try to answer them.

▶ 1:33:05 Speaker 4: Councillor Ella. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 1:33:09 Christopher Cinella: Um, so this is long overdue. Um, my question is, but we can't, we can vote on it to have recommended to the full board.

▶ 1:33:16 Speaker 8: You all can, which, yes, you can't put a final vote,

▶ 1:33:17 Christopher Cinella: which would be the next final vote is okay. Correct. I mean, I'm in, I'm in favor of this. Not that it really matters technically. I think it's a little under, I think still what you know, uh, but I do appreciate you sending it down and doing the,

▶ 1:33:32 Paul Brodeur: And it is, um, it is subject to amendment. It was a little bit of a, of a rough, because again, there is no hard and fast rule for this kind of compensation for an elected, um, that it was, you know, kind of roughly ballpark. Um, it's, it's hard to predict what salary trends will be in the future, particularly on the mayor side, quite frankly, not at all on the town manager side. I, one thing I wanna share with the public, to the extent someone might be watching is that the, the town manager of reading was hired in 2022 Draw place, a longstanding guy. He got a salary of around 180 5. I don't remember the number. It's in the memo. And then he negotiated that up to around, I think it was around 1 96 for the beginning of 23. And in October of 23, he took, uh, the city manager position in Chelsea, where he is making about 250 grand plus. And Red is now advertising that job at around two 13 plus. So that's the trend in, in municipal world. So there's nothing to stop, uh, you all from amending it, uh, to, to insert a cola to adjust the number, either number up or down to make it effective. Um, on immediately on 2026, January, 2026 at a single number and then letting you go the, you know, there's, there's many options. Okay. For

▶ 1:35:09 Christopher Cinella: Sure. Thank you. So just for the record, I mean, I'm in favor of this. I'm, I'm in favor of amending it up a bit, but I feel like it should be for the next group. Obviously it has to be, you know, so I'm not gonna motion any number at this time. Um, but I do think we should personally recommend it to the, the full board. 'cause we don't know who's on the, you know,

▶ 1:35:32 Speaker 4: the committees aren't even made up yet, I don't think for next year. So thank you Councilor All.

▶ 1:35:40 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, I do echo, um, counselor Ella's, um, words and statement. I also, um, wanted just to, for clarifying, uh, for the sake of who is watching now or will be watching the recordings, um, how do we do, um, that assessment, uh, for the, um, salary? Is it based on the number of population? Is it based on, you know, like what type of consideration do we,

▶ 1:36:16 Paul Brodeur: Uh, so, so there's a chart and interestingly that that gives, I think it was in the materials of salary, you know, the, the salary potential extras of which aren't too many. Um, and it, it honestly, it doesn't correlate terrifically well. Um, sometimes people use budget as a, you know, as a vector for, uh, what defend. But even that, if you look back at the, you know, at the town manager as opposed to the town mayor, the Burlington town, Burlington is a little bit smaller than us population wise. I'm gonna say about 24,000. Their budget is a lot bigger because they have more money. And I wanna say that guy's current salary's about 2 25, 2 35. So it's a little bit of a, of an awkward, the sample size again, 'cause it's only about 45 mayors is fairly small. You know, you put Boston over here at over 200 or so, but even, even the mayor of Boston makes substantially less than, um, city manager at Cambridge, city manager of Lowell, um, the town managers I just mentioned. So it's, it's, it's not a great way to comp it,

▶ 1:37:36 Speaker 5: Honestly. Yeah. And, and,

▶ 1:37:37 Maya Jamaleddine: and the reason why I'm asking is because based on the document that we have now was mentioned, the population Mm-Hmm. As part of the, um, you know, the information that were provided. And I just found that, you know, if we, I just don't want it to have any misleading information that based on the population we consider the salary, uh, rather than totally different factors that, uh, play a big role in deciding that salary. So, for instance, if there is, um, a less population number and a higher, uh, salary

▶ 1:38:16 Speaker 5: is really not the reason, um, of that or that

▶ 1:38:24 Paul Brodeur: It's a lot of you think, I mean, it's really just a community decision to, to a certain degree. I, I will tell, like, if you're gonna try to fit it onto a spectrum, it wouldn't work. 'cause the, um, the Mayor of Malden makes $105,000 a year. The mayor's chief of staff in Malden makes about $118,000 a year. Mm-Hmm. So sometimes these thing that part of that's politics elected, it's hard to,

▶ 1:38:51 Paul Brodeur: you know, to ask for my, I mean, I, I, uh, you know, when I was in the legislature, I voted for a raise. I got a lot of feedback, and it was, it was pretty negative all in all. But there's only so many, there's only so many choices if that's the virtue of the coal, except with the coal, you lock in a, you probably lock in a crappy race if you don't allow some kind of adjustment for the market. Okay.

▶ 1:39:17 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, so just, um, again, just, uh, for transparency, uh, purposes, it's really not about the number of, uh, the population in Melrose that we decide on the prior, uh, on the salary rather than so many different factors that play a role in that decision. And one of them, it could be, you know, the year of experience and, um, you know, all the other Mm-Hmm. Um, thanks. Thank you. Sure. That's all.

▶ 1:39:46 Jack Eccles: And we have voting member Jack Eccles and Q and the non-voting member, Rob Stewart. Cool, thanks. Um, yeah, I think I, I agree with Councilor Ella. Um, elected official compensation is always, uh, quite the conversation. I think that ultimately, you know, thinking about the cola, and this is true of much of the compensation that's set by ordinance. So, you know, if you decide at some point, this is for the new next council to consider. I agree. Um, but you know, if in 2027 we decide that $150,000 is the appropriate amount to compensate, that probably means that it shouldn't be that in 2033. Um, so, you know, by statute or by ordinance, the way that these compensations work is that people end up being a little undercompensated. Um, which means, you know, oftentimes leads to who can run for office, people can afford to take a significant pay cut. So I think being competitive and making sure that, you know, we're giving people a cola like many other people in the city are receiving, um, I think that's important to either bake in or assess whenever is appropriate. Thanks. Uh,

▶ 1:40:58 Ryan Williams: recognize non-voting member Rob Stewart. Councillor Stewart.

▶ 1:41:01 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Mayor for this, uh, good insight. Appreciate it. Um, just, uh, as a non-voting member, uh, my observation is that, uh, this is a, there's a lot of a lot of data involved with this. 'cause there's a wide variance in the, as you'd mentioned, the, the range of salary. And, uh, you know, I think it is of extreme importance for this council to get it right and for the, the council that will be representing the administration going forward to get it right. Um, so what I would beseech this council, this committee to consider is two things. One is to hold a committee until the next, uh, council comes in so they can be fully aware and have that opportunity to have this discussion. Uh, and second to involve, uh, someone like, uh, Polly on, uh, what a fair, uh, evaluation is someone that's a professional, uh, as opposed to us who, you know, I mean, we can make it up, but, uh, I don't know about everybody else on this, but I don't study compensation every single day, and I don't think many of us on the, uh, within the council do. So, uh, with that Mr. Chair, I, I would recommend consideration for those two aspects. Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 1:42:17 Paul Brodeur: Let's go with, well, a couple other thing that I, I slightly disagree. I mean, I think comps only go so far on this. It's, it's, it's part of it's marketplace, but it is also, I don't wanna say a statement of values. That's a little bit, that's a little bit too strong, but it should be, what do you want to pay? Because there will, there will be someone to do this job no matter what you pay them do. I mean, guy Christiansen has proven that, right? And there, there was, the story back in the day went, and I'm not so sure it was true that Mayor Milano, uh, the story goes, was a retired b and m railroad lawyer. So he had a substantial income so that he had no interest in seeing the, seeing the salary go up, because that would presumably meet, uh, more competition. I think that's a little bit of, uh, a urban myth, uh, quite frankly, or who knows. Uh, the other thing that I do think we should all keep, uh, keep in mind is not that there's not, that the mayor has to be the highest paid person in the city, because a lot of the, the department of things are driven by a different market dynamic, right? Where they, they have choices. You're either mayor or you're not. You don't go, uh, this maybe the town manager thing, but you don't, uh, you know what, I'm running them all the next year, right? 'cause they pay better or they pay worse. Um, but it's to look at what the, look at the direct reports to the mayor and see if that system makes sense. That internal consistency I think means a lot as well. Just in terms of the, you know, the workforce dynamic

▶ 1:44:02 Maya Jamaleddine: We have. Um, I, I just wanna second the motion,

▶ 1:44:07 Robb Stewart: So I can't make a motion. I'm not in the committee.

▶ 1:44:10 Speaker 5: Oh, Correct. Yeah.

▶ 1:44:12 Ryan Williams: I'll, um, co councilor Kels had his hand up for the second time. I, I was, um, on discussion on the motion, so Oh, understood. Thank you. Councilor Jamal? I'm sorry.

▶ 1:44:23 Speaker 5: So I'll make a motion, um, to, um, to file for, um, to file this, to hold this order for committee

▶ 1:44:36 Ryan Williams: To, to place on file within the committee. Hold to, hold on, to hold. Sorry. Thank you. Uh, so Councillor Aldine has made a motion to hold this in committee.

▶ 1:44:48 Speaker 1: Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Do we need a roll call? Vote

▶ 1:44:52 Speaker 4: Discussion. It's an ordinance,

▶ 1:44:53 Speaker 8: so yeah. Let's,

▶ 1:44:54 Speaker 1: Let's do it. Roll call, vote. Sorry about that. Councillor Ella? Yes. Councillor Eccles. Yes. Councillor Jamine Discussion? Yes. Uh, chair Williams? Yes. That's, uh, four yes to hold.