Lynn City Council cuts pay, cancels hearing

LYNN – City councilors have scrapped an April 15 mayoral pay raise hearing scheduled last week and cut their salaries, effective today, to bring them in line with Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy’s annual pay.”There will not be a vote on the 15th or for a while. We continue to have dialogue,” said Council President Daniel Cahill.He said the 11-member council needs more information on pay rates and other salary details for mayors in other cities comparable to Lynn. Kennedy in a March interview said pay rates for mayors in comparable cities range from $140,000 to $170,000, and councilors said the mayor should earn $140,000 a year, perhaps more.”We certainly need to fix it,” said Ward 1 Councilor Wayne Lozzi.Councilors on Wednesday said they are also concerned about what Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano called “ramifications” spinning off from last month’s court decision declaring the mayor’s salary to be $82,500 a year.Cahill said the council, starting April 1, adjusted its pay to the mayor’s. City Treasurer Richard Fortucci said the adjustment amounts to a 19 percent council pay cut.Fortucci said each councilor’s monthly pay drops from $1,275 to $1,031 starting with the pay period that begins today. Cahill’s council president’s monthly salary drops from $1,358 to $1,145.”This was submitted to my office by the council office,” Fortucci said.Some councilors are unhappy with the cut.”I had hoped it would stay the same until things pan out,” said Ward 7 Councilor Rick Ford.Lozzi said the council has not received a pay hike in at least six years and cut its pay several years ago. The City Charter gives the council authority to set its salary as well as the mayor’s.”In 10 years, I’ve never voted to increase the council salary,” he said.Council salaries in 10 years have climbed from $1,089 a month to $1,275 with a one-time increase in December 2008 to nearly $1,700.Salary computations that gave former Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. a six-figure salary annually between 2002 and 2010 are addressed in the court decision. Justice Jane Haggerty noted in the decision that the city is entitled to recover an estimated $400,000 in “additional compensation” Clancy received over and above the $82,500 pay benchmark.Capano is worried Haggerty’s ruling could make councilors “potentially liable for thousands of dollars” in past earnings.”I want to do whatever the right legal answer is, but I don’t like that I’m making half of what I made last month,” Capano said.Cahill said the pay raise discussion “is not the number one issue in the city” and said more pressing concerns include the ongoing effort to resolve Lynn’s net school spending shortfall.Kennedy warned School Committee members last week that the spending problem could result in city employee layoffs if legislative and other answers to the shortfall are not found.On Wednesday, she called the council pay raise discussion and net spending “two entirely separate issues.”Councilors said a pay raise discussion – when it occurs – should be set against the backdrop of the Superior Court decision.”I’d like us to address the issue with enough confidence that we know it’s solid and so we know we’re not leaving future councilors with liability,” Capano said.