Charlie Breitrose Watertown’s City Hall.
The City Council will receive a raise of nearly 70 percent next year after members approved three of four recommendations from a committee of residents that studied Council compensation.
The Council considered the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Linda Scott, one of seven residents who served on the Blue Ribbon Committee said that the group considered two basic questions: Is it time for a City Council salary adjustment? And, if yes, what is a fair number?
The Blue Ribbon Committee came up with four recommendations:
- Recommendation 1: Increase the Council member salaries from $8,900 per year to $15,000 per year.
- Recommendation 2: Increase the Council President’s salary from $12,000 per year to $22,000 per year.
- Recommendation 3: Convene a Blue Ribbon Committee every five years to assess Councilor Compensation.
- Recommendation 4: When the School Committee compensation is increased, the City Council President’s salary should be considered for a commensurate increase.
The increases to the salaries for the City Councilors and the Council President would amount to a 69 percent increase. The salary increases will take effect on Jan. 2, 2026, the first day of the next Council term.
Public Input
Scott said the Committee looked at the history of the Council’s salary. Watertown has had a City form of government since 1981, following a vote in 1980. For many years afterward, Watertown was referred to as a Town, but had a Council-Manager style of government. The switch from the Town to the “City of Watertown” was approved in 2021 along with other changes to the Charter.
“In the year 2000 the City Council, for the first time, voted to award a lump sum of $5,000 to each councilor in recognition for the work that they did. Those were simpler times, working with much smaller budgets. The 2000 budget was about $70 million,” she said. “Over the past 25 years, there was no attempt to consistently increase this number by 2 or 2.5 percent. Recently, there have been modest increases, but in the Commission’s opinion, they did not adequately reflect the increasing job requirements for the City Council that has to oversee the ongoing of a with a current budget of $223 million.”
Former Councilor Angeline Kounelis spoke against increasing the salaries.
“For many years, I thought that the City Council, or then Town Council, should receive modest increases. The Council position is not a part-time position, nor is it a full time job,” she said. “We have boards and commissions members of whom had approached me seeking compensation, and we did not feel that that was appropriate. So I think taking everything into consideration, the Council certainly deserves to receive modest increases. But I do not support a 69 percent increase, which would bring the Council up to $15,000.”
Jimmy Mello, who also served on the Blue Ribbon Committee, said he sees the increase as bringing the Council’s salary up to date.
“In my opinion, I think the Council, for the longest time, has been underpaid, and I also think the School Committee is underpaid, but I think it’s time,” Mello said. “So, people can say it’s a 69 percent increase, but I think we’re getting to a level where it should be, and we’re correcting errors of the past.”
Resident Elodia Thomas said she believes the Council deserves an increase.
“I want my Council to be respected. I would like to get more out of certain councilors, quite frankly, to focus on the issue of being a councilor and not their sub interest. But that’s a topic for another day,” Thomas said. “I think this is long overdue, should happen immediately, and I thank you for all your service to this community. Look around and see what’s going on in other towns. We have an excellent Council.”
Council Votes
The Council approved the raises for the eight City Councilors, as well as the raise for the City Council President.
There was some discussion about the recommendation to convene a Blue Ribbon Committee every five years to examine the Council’s salary.
Sideris weighed whether to support this proposal.
“I’m not sure I’m going to support this, but I do think that if things fall off the planet and we need to do an adjustment, we may need to look at that before the five years,” Sideris said. “But I think in concept, it’s OK because that way it’s not putting it in the City Council’s hands. It’s putting it in an independent group of people.”
In the end, the Council unanimously passed the Blue Ribbon Committee recommendation.
Among the jobs of the Council President is serving as one of the members of the School Committee. Sideris said he opposed the Blue Ribbon Committee’s proposal to raise the City Council President’s salary when the School Committee’s salary is increased.
“I am going to vote no on this because I believe that the reason the Council President is getting a higher salary is because of the fact that they’re on the School Committee,” he said. “I shouldn’t speak for someone in the future, but I think that that’s the way this was set up many years ago. That’s why there’s a difference in the salary.”
Councilor Tony Palomba agreed, and said that he was surprised to see that recommendation included by the Blue Ribbon Committee.
Councilor Nicole Gardner said she was conflicted because the Council President has to deal with so many things, such as managing the agenda, meeting with the City Manager regularly, and managing the City Council staff.
The Council unanimously opposed the recommendation to increase the Council President’s salary if the School Committee gets an increase.