Finance Committee Stalls On Town Councilor Compensation Proposal

Meeting of the Finance Committee June 9, 2023

The Finance Committee met on June 9 to discuss a proposal from Councilors Ellisha Walker (at large) and Michele Miller (District 1) to raise the annual compensation for town councilors from $5000 to $10,000 per year. The stipend of the council president was proposed to increase from $7,500 to $12,500 per year. Committee chairs, who currently receive no additional compensation, would receive an added stipend of $500 per year. The raise would bring Amherst closer to what most other communities with similar forms of government offer, according to the proposal.

Northampton, recently proposed raising the stipends of their city councilors from $9,000 annually to $16,931 and of the council president from $10,000 to $21,164. The Northampton increases, if approved, would be the first in eight years and would place those town officials among the best compensated in the region. Agawam city councilors receive an annual stipend of $10,000. Easthampton councilors receive $6000. Holyoke and West Springfield councilors receive $10,000. Westfield councilors receive $14,000.

The Amherst proposal also sets aside $5000 to create a pool that councilors could draw on to subsidize childcare or family care during council meetings. It also recommends the provision of health insurance for any councilor who does not have it through their primary employment.

The sponsors argued that councilors are not fairly compensated for their work compared with similar communities. They also thought that increasing the stipend might make it more feasible for someone to run for office who might otherwise not because of time demands or family needs. They suggest that this could create a more diverse pool of candidates and ultimately a more diverse council.  Read the full proposal here.

The proposal follows the procedures set out in the Town Charter, Section 2.4 which says:

“The members of the Town Council shall, subject to appropriation, receive compensation for their services as set by the Town Council. No measure increasing or reducing the compensation of the members of the Town Council shall be effective unless it is adopted by a majority vote of the full Town Council during the first 18 months of the Town Councilors’ term and provides that the compensation increase or reduction is to take effect upon the reorganization of the Town government following the next regular Town election.”  

The proposal did not receive a warm reception from the majority of the committee. All but Walker and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) voiced discomfort with the process, saying that councilors should not be making decisions about councilor compensation. Several said that they favored a process similar to the one adopted in Northampton where an independent Election Officials Advisory Board studies and makes adjustments to the compensation of elected officials. Those recommendations are then ratified by the city council. However, in Amherst, the procedure and the timing for establishing compensation is set explicitly in the charter as noted above. 

Cathy Schoen (District 1),  Finance Committee Chair Andy Steinberg (at large), and Lynn Griesemer (Council President and District 2) also objected on fiscal grounds arguing that the health insurance plan was too expensive and that doubling councilors’ compensation felt extreme, especially in tight budgetary times when property taxes and water bills are rising substantially and when the council had been frugal with the School Committee, denying them an additional $84,000 to prevent the layoff of three library paraprofessionals in the elementary schools. They also worried that raising the stipend of councilors would set a precedent that would lead to calls to raise stipends for other elected officials (i.e., school committee members and Jones Library Trustees) and that there is no way to accommodate that kind of additional expense in the FY 2024 budget. 

If adopted, the new council stipends would go into effect in January 2024 when a newly elected council is seated.

Walker and Devlin Gauthier spoke in support of increasing stipends as did Bernie Kubiak (non voting member). Walker and Devlin Gauthier reminded their colleagues that different people experience life in Amherst differently, and that for many an additional $5,000 annually could make a significant difference.

After considerable discussion and debate the committee agreed to scrap the health insurance proposal, to retain the pilot of a child and family care fund, and to request a more detailed report from town Finance Director Sean Mangano of the fiscal implications for extending stipend increases to the school committee and the Jones Trustees. They agreed that they would hold another meeting where they could consider a compromise on the stipend proposal, which Schoen described as something more than zero and less than $5000. It was unclear whether the proposal for increasing the compensation of the council President and committee chairs was still under consideration.

Walker protested the proposed reduction, noting that she had originally made the case that the stipend needed to be closer to that of Northampton ($16,931) but that she had already compromised with her co-sponsor in order to make the request more politically palatable.  Council President Lynn Griesemer informed her fellow committee members that this means that the council must vote on a proposal by July 3, and that the Finance Committee must therefore forward their recommendation before then. The Finance Committee will meet again next week to consider a possible compromise.

The Discussion
Bob Hegner (non-voting member) wondered whether the proposed stipend increase would really make a difference for people who believe that they cannot now serve on the council or would the stipend have to be greater to make a difference?

Walker responded that, in her opinion, the town would indeed have to go higher to make a significant difference, and that the current request is a compromise designed to be more politically palatable and to move compensation in the right direction. She said that it is clear that there are people in town who would like to serve but are unable to without additional support. 

Kubiak said that his stipend was $5,000 when he served on the Belchertown Selectboard 30 years ago. He suggested that a boost was in order, perhaps even to the level of Northampton. He added “I see no evidence that boosting the stipend will change the diversity of the council.  But that doesn’t mean I oppose the proposal.”  Kubiak did however object to the health insurance proposal.  “If we do it for the council, we would have to do it for the School Committee and for any elected official who receives a stipend, and that creates cost problems for the town.”  He further added, “I am ambivalent about family care. The stipend should be sufficient to cover the additional expenses that an office holder might encounter. Sean (Mangano) has not calculated the cost to the town when we consider the school committee or the trustees.”

Griesemer reminded the committee that funds for child and family care are already in the budget for FY24, and that money will be available to any town councilor as of July 1.  She said that the fund is envisioned as a pilot program but was based on a similar funding pool adopted by Town Meeting, and that the Town Manager felt comfortable including it in the FY 24 budget.  

There was considerable discussion about making the process more fair, and more predictable and taking it out of the hands of the councilors. Several committee members spoke in favor of adopting a process like Northampton’s, and asked that the anticipated charter review committee explore changing the charter to amend the process.

Kubiak said he thought it would be preferable to raise the stipend and not support a child/family care fund and let the councilors use the greater stipend to meet their personal needs. 

Schoen said that she was not comfortable with any of the proposed increases. She said they were “too much,” came at a bad time, and that sitting elected officials shouldn’t be making these decisions.  She said that she could support a new bylaw that would create an independent committee to take up the issue of compensation but Devlin Guathier reminded her that there is both a tight deadline and a process imposed by the charter. Schoen said she could support a smaller increase – something less than $1000 for councilor stipends–but she could not support an increase in stipends for committee chairs. She said that she would support the child/family care pilot.

Devlin Gauthier pointed out that with the larger stipend councilors would have greater flexibility to purchase the services that  they need, e.g. to acquire childcare, to work fewer hours, or to put food on the table. She said a larger stipend would allow the council to not presume or define what others need.

Steinberg spoke of the pressure on the budget and said that the proposal would have a significant impact if it was imposed across many offices. He said that the town is already short staffed and that the cost of the proposal could equal a full-time staff position.

Griesemer provided a spreadsheet that showed that the stipend would have increased by about $800 since its inception in 2019 if councilors had received an annual 3% cost of living adjustment (which is what Amherst educators have accepted for the next three years in their recent contract settlement). 

Devlin Gauthier reminded committee members who said that they could not abide the process that the sponsors had followed the letter of the law and should not be criticized or opposed for following the required rules.  “We are not doing this for ourselves,” she said. “We do this now to impact the next council. For some people, this will impact their decision to run for office. For others it won’t, but for some this stipend might make that difference.  If we don’t do this now we miss another term and we’re stuck with what we have for another two years.  We are not voting to raise our salaries. Let’s take us out of it. We don’t know that we would be the beneficiaries.  And that’s why this process is set up the way it is.”

As the discussion drew to a close, Walker reminded the committee of the purpose of the proposal saying “it is for the next council, not for us, and we want to expand who can and who will run for council, so there is no better time to do it.”

She concluded “When I speak of diversity on town bodies, I am not just talking about racial diversity, I am talking about economic diversity. This is very difficult for me to talk about as the only low income person on the council – as a single parent with three children. This would make a difference for people like me.”  

“People ask me why My camera is off during meetings. And it’s because I am caring for my kids while we are in meetings.  And that allows me to use my stipend to put food in my house.  A better stipend would allow me to participate differently as a councilor.  If I can hire childcare I can attend more meetings, be better informed, and do my job better.”

In support of Walker’s comments, Devlin Gauthier said, “We all have different truths, different experiences, and this proposal impacts different subsets of people differently. You may not believe that if people received  an additional $5,000  that they might take some time off from their paid work to run for council but it’s true.  It’s true for me. That’s what I do. I work four days a week in the summer so I can devote one full day to council business.”