Bonuses boost council staff pay

Salaries exceed ranges authorized by city statutes

The City Council has been awarding large bonuses to members of its staff, quietly boosting the pay of some political appointees to levels that are well beyond the salary ranges authorized for those positions in city statutes, according to a Globe review of public records.

Under the guidance of City Council president Maureen Feeney, the council paid the council's staff director, Ann Hess Braga, $108,000 in 2007, including two bonus checks totaling $23,700. At the time, the salary range set by city ordinance for the position was $65,000 to $85,000 annually. Six other council staff members also received bonuses that pushed their pay beyond statutory limits.

In addition to the overall council staff, councilors also have also generously rewarded their personal aides and researchers, pushing through midyear and Christmas-time bonuses as high as $10,000 as last-minute agenda items, which received no debate or public airing before approval.

One city budget watchdog called the bonuses an inappropriate method of allocating taxpayer money and said it was disturbing that some staff members received salaries in excess of legal ranges through what appeared to be a secretive process.

"I don't think there's any justification for payments beyond the ranges that council approves," said Sam Tyler, executive director of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. "What's the point of establishing, by ordinance, salary ranges, if you're not going to follow them?"

Feeney defended the payments, saying the 13 members of the central staff - who prepare agendas, conduct research, handle logistics for hearings, among other duties - do not receive overtime despite their long hours. She added that several of them have had to perform additional tasks because of staff vacancies.

"There is no permanency, there is no job security, there is no collective bargaining, there's no union protection," Feeney said in a telephone interview. "We try to be as fair as possible in doing this and coming to a salary that really reflects the work that's being done at the time."

The increased payments raise questions because government employees generally do not receive bonuses, a perk typically reserved for the private sector. The bonuses were also approved through City Council maneuvers that limited public debate and appeared to circumvent the ordinances setting salaries.

The Globe received payroll records for the City Council through a public records request, and obtained copies of docket orders from the city clerk showing regular and temporary salaries approved by the council. Those dockets, which are often introduced as late-filed motions, are not included in the packet of weekly council meeting documents regularly made available to the public and the press, nor do the details of the payments appear on council agendas or minutes.

"Yes, there's a public vote, but it's a very private process," Tyler said.

Two ordinances govern salaries for City Council staff. One law sets salary ranges for the members of central staff by job title. Another authorizes each councilor to spend up to $175,000 - or $212,000 for the council president - to assemble and pay a separate, small personal staff to answer constituent requests, draft resolutions, handle scheduling, and perform other tasks.

In a quirk of the city's strong-mayor form of government, the City Council cannot permanently hire its own staff because only the mayor or his appointees have the power to hire and fire city employees. So, in order to retain control over its staff, the council hires personnel through recurring, 90-day appointments passed by a vote of the 12-member body.

The council's maneuvers are complex. On June 20 and Nov. 28, 2007, Feeney introduced council orders to appoint each member of central staff for a one-week period at salaries that far exceeded the weekly pay they usually received. The orders had the cumulative effect of increasing seven of the staff members' pay beyond the codified salary ranges.

In addition to Braga, business manager Marilyn Brambilla received two checks totaling $17,430, which pushed her total 2007 compensation to $73,523, beyond the upper range for her position by $13,553. Legislative assistant Juan Lopez received checks totaling $11,916,which pushed his salary over the upper range of $55,000 by $6,486. Research director Johanna Bernstein, assistant research director Lincoln Smith, legislative assistant Cora Montrond, city messenger Ron Cobb, and special projects assistant Paul Walkowski were also paid beyond their salary ranges by smaller margins.

Each of the staff members either did not immediately return calls to the Globe or declined to comment when reached by a reporter yesterday afternoon. Bernstein no longer works for the City Council.

The council elected Feeney president in January 2007, succeeding Michael Flaherty, who had been president since 2002. City records show that central staff members also received temporary pay hikes under Flaherty's tenure, but they were smaller and did not push the employees' pay over statutory ranges.

"The central staff of the City Council received appropriate cost-of-living adjustments during the years in which I served as Council President," Flaherty said in a statement released by his office. A staff member said he was unavailable for an interview.

In an interview, Feeney objected to characterizing the payments as bonuses. She said the "temporary" pay increases were made outside of the employees' regular pay to compensate them for additional duties and incorporate cost-of-living increases. Three central staff positions were vacant for periods of about three months each, and the city's budget director was on maternity leave for four months in 2007.

"If you look at the salaries and the work that they're doing, I suggest to you that they are underpaid, not overpaid," she said. "We're just trying to do the right thing here, and I think it's critically important that we maintain a stable central staff so that we can create greater opportunities for the people we represent."

Tyler said there would be a simple way for City Council to increase the central staff's pay in a way that did not raise questions. "If somebody is worth $95,000 in their mind, but the range only goes to $85,000, then change the ranges," he said. "Clearly the council has the ability to change the ranges based on what he person in that position is worth."

Feeney acknowledged that the process for compensating central staff employees "is not a perfect system," and pointed out that the City Council earlier this month voted to approve increases in all the ranges.

Council aides and councilors said it has been a regular practice for councilors to hand out left-over cash in their yearly allotment to their personal staff - as opposed to central staff - in the form of holiday bonuses and at the end of the fiscal year in midsummer.

Tyler said the bonuses paid to councilors' personal staff appear to fall within their authority to spend their allotments as they see fit, but said lump-sum payments at the end of the year are "not an appropriate way" to dole out public salaries.

Councilor Rob Consalvo paid out the highest bonuses in 2007, with council approving one-week checks for two employees in his office of more than $10,000 in June of 2007. Consalvo said the staff members work nights and weekends and could make considerably more in the private sector.

"I do reward my staff with bonuses," Consalvo said. "I wish I could pay them more."

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a Page One story yesterday on bonuses paid to Boston City Council staff members misstated the size of the council. It has 13 members.