Beverly City Council To Talk Mayor, Elected Officials' Salaries

BEVERLY, MA — The Beverly City Council will hold a public hearing on potential increases to the salary of the mayor's office, as well as City Council and School Committee positions, this month after the full Council overrode a subcommittee vote that would have essentially tabled the discussion for the next two years.

Finance and Property Subcommittee Chair Matthew St. Hilaire and City Council President Julie Flowers voted to shelve the salary talk — coming in the wake of the 12-day teachers' strike and amid some dire financial forecasts for the city — with Flowers saying during the subcommittee discussion: "I don't feel this is the right climate to have these conversations."

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But Councilor Brendan Sweeney dissented in the 2-1 subcommittee vote, saying he felt it was important to "see the process through" and take a vote of the full Council.

His sentiment gained the support of the full Council, with members saying the recent teacher contract debate revealed the need to have more public discourse about finances — including the Council's own salary — whether increases are ultimately supported or not.

"We should be able to talk about what our stipends are," City Councilor Hannah Bowen said. "We talk about every other part of the budget at least once a year — ideally more than that. So I think making it routine, making it less dramatic, making it more public, all makes it easier to have that conversation.

"Whether that outcome is that the stipends for City Council and School Committee should stay what they are for 26 years, we should be able to have that conversation without it being personal, without it being too painful to talk about, and the only way to get there is to talk about it."

St. Hilaire argued that even having the discussion was unnecessary given public sentiment around budget priorities and said he would present an ordinance change to take the agenda item out of the two-year cycle of discussion entirely.

Any changes to the stipends and salaries would not take place until after the next set of elections.

"It is very shortsighted to think that it is for raising our salaries," City Councilor Kathleen Feldman said. "I never think of it as my salary. I think of it as the Ward 5 City Councilor's salary. In any organization, if you want to recruit diverse voices, and talents, and perspectives, you really do need to make it something where someone would have a reason to run.

"I don't want to be doing this forever. And I would love for somebody to see an opportunity because it was just enough for them to make it worth their while."

The vote to have the discussion passed the full Council by a 7-2 vote — with St. Hilaire and Flowers dissenting. A potential vote either way is time-sensitive for any changes to take effect following the next election cycle in 2025.

Flowers asked to set the hearing for a 6 p.m. Special City Council meeting prior to the next scheduled meeting on Dec. 16.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)