Council wonders what to do with their pay raise

City Council wrestled yesterday with a topic fraught with political and financial pitfalls - what to do about a 5.13 percent raise its members received a week ago?

Council is guaranteed the cost of living allowance (COLA) based on legislation approved in 2003.

But the city is still waiting to see if the state General Assembly approves a 1 cent increase in the local sales tax to help close a $1.4 billion deficit in the five-year spending plan. And Mayor Nutter is calling upon the city's four municipal unions to accept no raises and millions in concessions in ongoing contract negotiations.

That makes this a tough time for Council to collect a raise.

The total amount for increases for all 17 members comes to $100,463. Twelve members received a $5,758 raise on their annual $112,223 salaries. Council's five leadership posts pay more, so their raises were slightly more.

Council President Anna Verna declined to comment after meeting with eight of her colleagues, but said through a spokesman that they reached consensus on not keeping the raise. No final decision has been made because the Council members are debating what to do next.

Three scenarios emerged from the meeting. Council could donate the raises to the city's general fund since an elected official's salary can't be decreased during his term. Council members could donate the money to a favorite charity. Or Council could donate the money to one charity.

Council Majority Leader Marian Tasco said that she likes the individual charity option because money donated to the general fund "tends to get lost in the sauce." That money can't be targeted for one project or cause, she said.

"You never know where it's going to go," Tasco said.

Reporters were barred from entering the meeting despite the presence of a Council quorum, Tasco said, because the pay raise discussion is a "personal issue."

Council members must determine how to deal with the tax implications of the raise, since their salaries will reflect a 5.13 percent increase even if they give it up.

"I don't want to take it," Councilman Frank DiCicco said. "I have to figure out how to not take it and not be penalized for it."

Nutter was one of 12 Council members who supported the 2003 legislation to increase the pay for the city's elected officials. He also helped override a veto from then-Mayor John Street on the pay-raise legislation.

Nutter met with Council members to discuss the city's budget, but didn't tell them what to do on the raises.

"It's always a personal decision that elected officials have to make for themselves," Nutter said.

Nutter, his cabinet and commissioners have decided to give back their COLA increases this year.

Council members also have to determine whether to continue giving back 5 percent of their salaries to the general fund, as eight members did throughout the last six months of the 2009 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

One topic that didn't get discussed yesterday was changing the law to end the COLA raises.

"We're not talking about that," Tasco said. "It didn't come up." *