Whether City Council members deserve a raise, and how much, will be studied under a measure overwhelmingly approved this week.
But by the same 8-1 majority, Council struck a proposal that would have docked their pay if they failed to show up for meetings without prior notice.
“I certainly share his sentiment ... that it is our responsibility to show up and come to work,” said Councilmember Michael Patterson, who proposed the amendment striking the attendance policy. "Nevertheless, even though this has occurred in the past, in my time on council, it has not been a significant and regular occurrence.”
Patterson was referring to a time last July when City Council couldn’t vote on borrowing and other matters because several members failed to show up for the monthly meeting. That instance, and a later push he led to dramatically raise City Council salaries, is what Councilmember and finance committee chairperson Mitch Gruber sought to address.
The legislation Gruber introduced proposed two things: establish an independent commission to determine pay increases for Councilmembers, and dock Councilmembers a month’s pay for every meeting missed after two unannounced absences. The latter portion was struck from the bill by the time it came to vote Tuesday evening.
City Council positions are considered part-time, with pay currently set at $41,413, and 3% cost-of-living adjustments scheduled for each of the next three years. That is less than Buffalo, where members are full-time, but more than Syracuse, where the Council is part-time.
The attendance policy faced immediate pushback from several others on Council and was shelved at a committee meeting earlier this month, alongside the bill establishing a pay committee. Members of Council had questioned the legality of setting an attendance policy, and lamented the process by which Gruber developed the plan. One member, Chiara Smith, had referred to Gruber’s drafting of the legislation without input of all members “vile” and accused Gruber of not recognizing his white privilege.
“The entire purpose of the legislation I put forward again is to make sure that Councilmembers are treated the exact same as any other employee of the city of Rochester,” Gruber said before the vote Tuesday. “That we do not set our own salaries, and that we do not get paid when we don't show up, and we don't notice it.”
Gruber was the sole ‘no’ vote.
City Councilmember Mary Lupien had raised a motion to send the bill back to committee, which would delay a vote and offer opportunity to further amend the legislation. That motion failed.
“The other legislative bodies in Monroe County and at the school district, they have ZOOM attendance, and I strongly encourage us to consider that as a policy so that we can increase not just the notice, but actual attendance, which is what I think we all want,” Lupien said.
Gruber had supported that motion and said if the issue was solely about the process of the legislation’s drafting, it would have been the correct path.
“The very process by which folks were frustrated is now the process by which these amendments happen,” Gruber said. “No conversation, no communication until day of, and all we're doing is stripping attendance policy.”
