Did you miss it? Well, most Parkites did. Last Thursday, the mayor and City Council voted to double their salaries. Don’t you wish you could do that? Our mayor’s compensation and benefits will now be greater than those of most U.S. large city mayors (with similar weak-mayoral forms of gove rnment). It was just a coincidence that the vote was held with minimal prior notice in late May (when many of us are out of town) in an off-election year, was the last item on the council’s agenda, and used the fig leaf of tying it to City Hall staffers’ compensation (there is no connection). This was self-serving backroom political dealings worthy of President Trump. At least Councilor Bill Ciraco had the integrity and insight to point out that serving on the council was a public service privilege, and voted against the raise. There may be some good reasons for increasing our political leaders’ pay, such as an increasing workload and incentivizing potential candidates to run for office. But that should be considered in an open discussion or referendum, not last Thursday’s “let’s slip this through while no one’s looking” approach. At the council meeting, I spoke about how bad this looked and suggested that if they really thought raises were a good idea, they should vote for it now to take effect for our next council. Apparently, the deal is done. At a time when many of us are struggling financially, and after an economically dismal winter, and our community is facing an uncertain future, let’s congratulate our mayor and City Council on their raises funded by the taxpayers. Michael E. Kaplan Old Town The post What a raise appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less