PEABODY — The City Council voted near-unanimously to increase Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr.’s salary by $9,000, bringing his annual compensation to $135,000, a figure more closely in line with surrounding communities.
Bettencourt’s salary had previously been set at $126,000 and he had declined raises in six of the past 12 years, bringing the effective annual increase of his salary just north of two percent, according to Ward Two Councilor Peter McGinn. The council conducts an annual review of the mayor’s performance and has the discretion to vote to increase his salary.
Councilor-at-Large Thomas L. Gould put forward the motion to increase Bettencourt’s salary.
There was little debate from councilors regarding the raise, with two members — Ward Three Councilor Stephanie Peach and Ward Six Councilor Mark O’Neill — voting present and the remaining eight voting in favor of the raise.
Peach and O’Neill both stressed that their votes were not meant to signal opposition to the raise.
In brief remarks ahead of the vote, Peach explained that she misinterpreted the attachment included in the Committee of the Whole notice provided to councilors and posted to the city’s website, believing that it signaled a $4,000 raise for the mayor rather than the $9,000 figure the council voted on.
“If I read it that way, many residents read it that way,” she said. “I just was not familiar with the process … I’m not opposed to the raise, I just don’t think this was as transparent to the public as it needed to be.”
O’Neill’s objections were tied to the way the council’s salaries are structured at a rate equal to nine percent of the mayor’s salary. He said he believed the council’s salary should not be tied to that of the mayor, noting that in raising the mayor’s salary the council was effectively raising its own salary.
A proposal crafted by O’Neill to sever the salaries had faced a harsh rebuke from his fellow councilors and was shot down at a council meeting and at a Finance Committee meeting.
“He (O’Neill) has every right to say we shouldn’t be doing it, but as a councilor who sat for 24 years, we have only had a raise two times. Salary changes (that we make) are for the next council, not our salaries,” said Ward Five Councilor Dave Gamache during a council meeting last month.
Councilor-at-Large Jon Turco said he also was in favor of keeping the status quo.
“I want the public to know that nobody got on the council to get rich,” he said, adding that over the last seven years, from 2016 to 2023, council members have received a total raise of only $35.35 per week.
“As a group, we receive a $11,339 salary. The council donates to 50-60 charities a year. The vast majority of that is given back to the city. You just don’t say no. This isn’t about dollars,” Turco said. “The public has never come out on this. This hasn’t been an issue for seven years. This is a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin, who voted against linking the mayor’s salary with councilors back in 2013, said, “the council and the Mayor’s salaries are not excessive. This works; if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I’m fine with where it stands at this time.”
With the raise official, Bettencourt’s salary draws closer to those of mayors and town executives in nearby cities and towns. Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson earns a salary of $145,000, Saugus Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s Fiscal Year 2023 salary was set at more than $187,000, and Lynnfield Town Administrator Rob Dolan earns more than $200,000 annually.
