WESTCHESTER – Westchester officials recently voted to more than double the pay for village trustees and the clerk while increasing the amount the village president receives annually by more than six times the current salary.
Westchester Village President Sam Pulia, who has held his seat since 2009, said he and trustee Carl Celestino were the only elected officials to oppose a measure approved at the Village Board's Jan. 26 meeting to increase pay for elected offices in the village.
Currently, the village president, trustees and clerk all earn $2,400 per year, Pulia said. Following the recent vote to increase pay for these offices, he said all trustees and clerks sworn in after May 9, 2017, will receive $5,000 annually while the village's next president will receive $15,000 per year.
"Now, there are three trustees and a mayor that will be running in 2017," he said. "Two years later the three other seats will be up [for election]."
Pulia said he doesn't plan to run in the next election cycle because he believes in term limits.
"When I took this job, it was a volunteer position – it has always been a volunteer position," he said.
Pulia, a retired Westchester police officer, said he's served as a full-time mayor for the village, though it's a part-time position.
"When you get elected, you know it's whatever pay it is, and I certainly don't do it for the pay," he said.
Pulia said the topic surfaced in late 2015, and a majority of the village trustees pressed forward on the pay increase. He said the village is not the type of municipality with a "strong mayor form of government."
"In our case, we have a village manager, a professional lady, who gets paid professional money to be the village manager," Pulia said.
Money is "especially tight," and the village is grappling with unexpected costs associated with several projects and the possibility that some needed funding from the state may be cut, he said.
Pulia said he thought "the money is better spent some other place" than on pay increases for elected offices.
Trustee Frank Perry, owner of hot dog restaurant Joe's Place in Westchester, said he supported the measure because the village has struggled to get people involved in local government. He said officials took a pay cut in 2006, and the raises were a way "to catch us back up to where we were in 1984."
"Everybody's time is worth something," Perry said. "You offer something to people to give them an incentive to take pride in their community."
None of the other trustees who voted in favor of the pay increase responded to a request for comment.
Celestino, who joined Pulia in voting no on the pay hike, said he believes "the current compensation we receive is adequate – it's more than enough."
Like Pulia, Celestino, who works as a staff member for another municipality, cited looming economic threats, including state cuts and a slow recovery from the last recession.
"We have full-time staff that does the day-to-day work," he said. "It's not the board who does the work. It's about public service. It's a privilege to serve."
Pulia said he is looking into whether or not he has any kind of veto power to overturn the approved pay raises.
"I'm not sure under our present form of government if I do," he said.
Neither Celestino nor Pulia said they've heard any response from residents since the increases were approved.
"I'm waiting for the backlash," Pulia said. "They'll think it's me, that I want $15,000, and I really don't."