Mayor Sarno Pledges to Give $158 a Month Back to City
Posted on Tuesday, March 3 2009 by Heather Brandon
According to a report in today’s Republican by Mike Plaisance, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno (pictured at his desk in City Hall) will return two percent of his annual $95,000 salary to municipal coffers, effective immediately. As he told Plaisance, “You have to lead by example.” He will apparently write the $158 monthly checks to the city himself.
Is this a good idea? It does set an example of sacrifice of some kind especially in the midst of painful layoffs. But the potential amounts of money gained are rather small. It seems more like a politically savvy move than a fiscally prudent one—and who knows, maybe a number of employees doing the same would make a difference in the budget.
Union officials were quoted in today’s article referencing their frustration over layoffs and a possible request from the city to freeze wages. On February 2 the city issued a request to waive a 60-day union contract requirement for layoff notices, resulting in more savings for the city in salaries and benefits, and apparently (maybe) keeping the layoffs lower in number. The request didn’t seem to be all that well-received; it’s not clear whether any union has granted a waiver yet.
Sarno was quoted saying he thinks the Finance Control Board executive director, Stephen Lisauskas, and deputy executive director, Patricia Vinchesi—who earn $120,000 and $95,000 respectively—should also take pay cuts. He reportedly asked the city’s law department to look into whether he has the authority to order department heads to do the same.
Lisauskas and Vinchesi have already deferred annual two percent salary increases. Their jobs will cease to exist as of July 1, with the control board era coming to a close at the end of the fiscal year. Vinchesi is a finalist following her application for the position of town manager in Hopkinton.
The city is currently seeking to fill the newly-created position (examine the legislation here and here) of chief administrative and financial officer to more or less take their place. Applications were due March 1. According to a February 22 report in the Republican, the city has recently been weighing whether the search committee required for filling the position must open its meetings to the public. Which is the better political move? Or the fiscally prudent one?
Kerri http://ctlocalpolitics.net/realhartford
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:56 pmThanks for the report, Heather. Although I don’t live in Springfield, I like to learn about how other cities in this area are faring economically.
NoPolitician http://
March 4th, 2009 at 1:06 amThis is even less than a symbolic gesture because of Sarno’s significant jump in salary after becoming mayor.
In 2007, according to Guidestar.org, Sarno was paid $64,708 as the director of the nonprofit South End Community Center. He made another, what, $12k as a city councilor (I don’t recall their post-reduction salary). So he made around $77k in 2007. He made $95k in 2008 — a 23% increase.
Most of the people working for the city don’t see 23% increases in salary in a year. I suspect that anyone who did would gladly hand back 2% a year later because when all is said and done they are still up 20%.
I’m not suggesting that Sarno shouldn’t get paid $95k. I’m suggesting that the 2% that he is giving back is not going to cause one iota of hurt in his finances because of the sudden increase — so he shouldn’t do it and then tout it.