Aldermen defeat effort to freeze managers' pay

By Calvin Hennick, Globe Correspondent

Newton aldermen Thursday shot down an attempt by board member and mayoral candidate Ken Parker to freeze the pay of what he called the city’s top management workers.

Many of the city’s nonunion employees are scheduled to receive a 1.5 percent pay increase for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Parker said his proposal would have saved the city about $78,000 and would have made it easier to ask for concessions in negotiations with the city’s union employees. But opponents called the proposal arbitrary and said it would have amounted to reneging on a promise to employees.

“I think [the pay freeze] sends the wrong message to people who are doing a good job who are going to get whacked because of their particular pay grade,” said Ward 3 Alderman at Large Ted Hess-Mahan.

Parker’s proposal would have kept raises for non-union employees making less than $70,000 a year, but Hess-Mahan said some employees who make more than that aren’t really managers because no one reports to them. “It seems like it was an arbitrary decision.”

Hess-Mahan accused supporters of the proposal of “political grandstanding.” Parker is a candidate for the fall mayoral election.

But Parker said that, given many of the city’s union employees will be asked to go without any raise next year, the city is weakening its bargaining position. “You don’t get a raise, but your boss gets a raise. That’s a very difficult thing to explain to people.”

“We have Newton residents who have been laid off from their jobs,” Parker added. “We have Newton residents who have taken significant pay cuts. We are asking them to fund salary increases for the top earners in the city administration.”

The proposal was defeated 12 to 5 with 7 absences. Only William Brandel, George Mansfield, Greer Tan Swiston, Brian Yates, and Parker supported it.

Top school administrators have said they will voluntarily take a pay freeze for next year. Ward 2 Alderman at Large Marcia Johnson said that city managers were free to do the same, but that she didn’t support forcibly taking their raises away.

“Clearly if people who are in these [pay] grades want to say they don’t want an increase, that’s a personal prerogative,” Johnson said.

But supporters argued that it was up to aldermen to set the tone on compensation issues.

“I think it is clearly within our purview,” said Yates. “We do told the purse strings, although some of us hold them less tightly than others.”

“Why don’t we take leadership?” said Swiston, echoing Parker’s point that union employees may feel they are deserved raises if the city gives them to non-union employees. “I think this is the cycle that we’re trying to break here.”

On Wednesday, the board shot down a previous proposal by Parker to freeze all non-union salaries, including those of workers making less than $70,000.

Also on Wednesday, aldermen cut about $125,000 from the mayor’s office budget. Mayor David Cohen had tagged the funds for two new executive positions – a performance analyst and a budget analyst – but aldermen argued that decisions about the future of the mayor’s office should be made by whoever is elected in the fall and put the money into reserves.

Cohen said he was fine with the change, as long as the positions – which were recommended by the Citizens Advisory Group and are meant to boost performance and efficiency – are eventually added.

“I think as long as the positions are in budget reserve, and the aldermen are showing their support for going forward with those positions, I think it is perfectly acceptable,” Cohen said.

Cohen wouldn’t comment on the non-union raises, saying only that he would speak on the matter “somewhat later.”