June 18, 2004
Francesconi Says He Will Donate Pay Raise
This past Wednesday, we reported on a pay increase for elected City officials, which was challenged by Commissioner Jim Francesconi, but ultimately approved because Council was told that delaying the ordinance (which also included pay raises for "nonrepresented classifications") would cause a rise in administrative costs.
Picking up on that incident, KXL reported that Francesconi would be returning his raise, although apparently at the time KXL spoke with him, it was unclear just how this would work.
Today, according to Michael Harrison of Francesconi's office, the word is that the Commissioner will not be refusing or returning the 2% pay hike. Instead, says Harrison: "Jim is going to give his pay raise to the SUN Community School after-school program, a program that Jim co-founded as Parks Commissioner back in 2000."
We also asked Harrison if any Commissioners had returned or donated pay increases in the past. "I don't recall Commissioners donating their pay raises in the past," he said, "but I don't know that previous Commissioners have faced as bad a budget as we are currently facing."
As of this posting, we're still awaiting reaction to this from various other parties, since it's clear from the comments to our previous item that the move is being viewed very differently by different people.
Comments (2)
Pete on 18 Jun 2004
Somebody please do the math on how much money this will actually amount to. He's only got so much time left in office.
It's obviously a campign stunt, and a mediocre one. He should reject the raise to the Mayor's salary as well, should he win. Not that that would come close to the Busse $100/day promise, but he has to court Phil's voters somehow.
Marko on 18 Jun 2004
Puke.
Are we all publicizing our charitable donations now?
I'm waiting for the press release that says Francesconi has recently come to the conclusion that it's nice to open the door for elderly women.