Lynn officials’ pay raise yet to get final approval

LYNN – The City Council voted nearly three months ago to seek legislative approval to grant Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy a raise and, in turn, itself as well, but the summer has nearly passed with no pay increase.City Council President Daniel Cahill said the bill is sitting in the Massachusetts Legislature’s House committee on bills waiting for a third reading and has been since July 30.”Then it will go to the Senate for approval then back to the House for enactment ? then to the governor’s desk,” he said.City Council voted in June to boost the mayor’s pay from $82,500 a year to $145,000. It also agreed to set the annual salary for the members of the City Council at $25,000 with an additional $2,000 added to council president’s salary.The home rule petition was filed jointly by state Rep. Robert Fennell and state Sen. Thomas McGee, but it was not acted on before the end of the formal session, which closed July 31. Cahill said he was not surprised.”There were a lot of important pieces of legislation regarding job creation, gun control and other issues,” he said. “I’m not surprised this was not taken up in formal session.”Cahill said bill can be dealt with during informal sessions, which are held for the remainder of the session. Informal sessions, however, don’t require attendance or quorums.Cahill said he’s confident the matter will be resolved within the next few weeks.Once they are approved by the Legislature, the increases take effect immediately, according to city attorney James Lamanna. That could prove to be a big payout for councilors and Kennedy, since the bill is retroactive.City Comptroller Stephen Spencer said the legislation included a provision making the pay adjustments retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year for Kennedy and back to April 1 for councilors. City councilors budgeted for the possible increase in the 2014-15 budget, which was approved in June, and Kennedy is already covered, Spencer said.”She never spends what she has in her budget,” he said.The mayor’s budget includes $372,000 for salaries, which dates back to previous mayors, who have had up to five full-time employees, Spencer said. Kennedy has only two full-time employees and three part-time employees.”She might spend $255,000 a year and the rest goes back to the bottom line,” he said. “So the money is there to cover her increase.”Payroll is due on Monday and checks go out on Thursday, so, Spencer said, at most, there might be a week’s lag time once the legislation is approved.The increases were approved unanimously by councilors, which has caused a little heat for Brendan Crighton. Crighton is running for the state representative seat left vacant by Steven Walsh and has taken hits from both his opponents, School Committee member Charlie Gallo and local activist Aikaterini Panagiotakis Koudanis, who each said the time was not right to be issuing raises.Crighton, however, defended his vote, saying the new salary puts the Lynn mayor, who is in charge of the city of 90,000, in line with like-sized communities. He also refuted the oft-quoted line that it doubles the councilors’ salaries.He said the new salary for councilors reflects the combination of their previous pay plus a stipend for expenses. Councilors would no longer be eligible for expenses.