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City Council divided on subject of City Manager Molino's salary increase

By Mike Pettinella

City Council may or may not be contractually obligated to give City Manager Jason Molino a 2.75-percent salary increase for the 2017-18 fiscal year, but, as far as Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian is concerned, the time for across-the-board raises must come to an end.

The subject of Molino's pay hike, which would lift his annual salary to $96,361, was presented to Council at Monday night's Conference meeting. After a few minutes of discussion, it was moved to the board's September business meeting when a vote is expected to take place.

Christian, who has spoken favorably of Molino's job performance on several occasions, said if a raise is warranted she would rather see a specific dollar amount not a percentage.

"I'm not in favor of a raise," she said afterward. "I started (as a council member) with (an) $8 million (budget) in 1992, we're up to $24 million now. It just boggles my mind."

Christian said Molino receives his salary and many perks as well.

"We give a three thousand dollar raise besides all your perks. It's just crazy, OK. We pay him for gas, we pay him for different events that he goes to, any college that he wants to attend as far as somethng to do with our city, any kind of NYCOM meanings, all of his family has health insurance.

"Goodness. There's so many families that can't even put food on the table, let alone everything else."

When asked for her thoughts going forward, she was quick to respond.

"I know what the solution is going to be coming up in 2018 -- nobody's going to get a raise. We're going to be at a standstill. It's going to stay right there, as far as I'm concerned. We've got to have some adjustments. Think about it, there were never any houses that defaulted on their taxes at one time. Now, we have three, four, five a year. And how many (more) are coming this year?"

While Councilman Paul Viele said he agreed with Christian's assessment, Councilman Robert Bialkowski said that Council needs to act consistently with terms of a contract that, he said, enables the City Manager to receive a raise in line with what other city management employees were given. 

Noting that Molino scored at least 4.5 out of 5 in various areas of his performance evaluation, Bialkowski said "it is up to us to be responsible and meet our obligations," adding that he doesn't go for "double-crossing on deals."

Council President Eugene Jankowski pointed out that the board is "taking steps to adjust some things in next year's contract ... looking at other ways of compensation."

"We are doing something; it's not falling on deaf ears," he said.

Councilwoman Kathleen Briggs said that positive evaluations don't necessarily result in pay raises, while Councilman John Canale noted that Molino's raise was included in the budget that was passed in the spring.

It was decided to postpone the vote on Molino's raise until September since Jankowski will not be in attendance at the August business meeting.

John Roach

A 2.75% pay raise is a lot more than people on SS got this year. On top of his already fair salary, he gets extra money from the Water and Sewer funds, a number of perks, and he now has a full time Asst. Manager to help him and a non City employee, but paid about $70,000 by the City, Economic Development helper, who works in City Hall to help him

Give him what people on SS got and if he does not like it, he can move on..

Jul 11, 2017, 7:26am Permalink
Dave Meyer

Last year the city spent $168,192 on salary for Mr. Molino & Ms. DiFante. That's a lot of money for a city of 15000 residents. The city is well managed but it ought to be now that we have an assistant manager.
As Mr. Roach said, how many people reading this got a 2.75% raise last year? My hand isn't up.
Mr. Molino and Ms. DiFante are EXTREMELY well compensated. I think they will survive just fine with no raises at all.
It's about time that Council takes a stand on pay increases for the City manager and staff.

Jul 11, 2017, 10:36am Permalink

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