Easthampton mayor, council pay stays put, School Committee gets boost

Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle outside the Municipal Building.

Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle outside the Municipal Building. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

By ALEXA LEWIS

Staff Writer

Published: 12-20-2024 1:59 PM

EASTHAMPTON — After much contentious debate, the Easthampton mayor’s salary will remain unchanged for the next mayor, after the City Council voted Wednesday night to sustain Mayor Nicole LaChapelle’s veto on the increase they had proposed. The councilors also voted to give School Committee members a salary increase, but did not approve more compensation for the next City Council.

LaChapelle notified city officials on the morning of Dec. 11 that she was vetoing the mayoral raise voted approved by the council, stating that the increase was not “in line with the city’s fiscal goals.”

“The number that we came up with was compatible to the peers of the future mayor,” Councilor Brad Riley said at Wednesday’s meeting, in disagreement with the veto. Riley said that he is in favor of “pay equity,” and sustained the opinion he had stated at the last council meeting that the mayor’s salary in Easthampton should be higher.

On the current mayoral pay scale, LaChapelle will start earning $90,000 a year on Jan. 1, 2025, up from $87,000.

At their Dec. 4 meeting, the council had decided in a 5-3 vote to increase the salary of the city’s next mayor to a ceiling of $120,000 yearly. The initial pay scale recommended by the City Council Finance Committee would entitle the future mayor to $93,000 effective Jan. 1, 2026, $96,000 effective Jan. 1, 2027, $99,000 effective Jan. 1, 2028 and $102,000 effective Jan. 1, 2029, but council members expressed concerns that this amount was not commensurate with the duties of the mayor, leading Councilor James Kwiecinski to propose an amendment upping the amounts to $100,000 in January 2026, $107,500 in January 2027, $112,500 in January 2028 and $120,000 in January 2029.

This amendment was both approved and passed with a 5-3 vote. The increase would coincide with the election of a new mayor and the start of that four-year term on Jan. 1, 2026.

But at Wednesday night’s meeting, the council failed to produce the six-vote supermajority needed to override LaChapelle’s veto of the increase, as the majority of the councilors voted not to override the veto. The councilors also stated that they will not likely have time to go through the ordinance process again by the Dec. 31 deadline to propose a different raise amount.

Council Vice President Salem Derby clarified that salary increases must be decided upon by that date, and that an ordinance change for official salaries can not be adopted mid-term.

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This led to some frustration from councilors, such as Owen Zaret, who said he felt that he was “in a bind.”

Similarly, Councilor Thomas Peake said “I would be amenable to a compromise if there was a number that the mayor would support,” but that he wasn’t sure what that number would be, or if there would be time to introduce it.

However, City Council President Homar Gomez said that, in his conversations with LaChapelle, he came to the understanding that LaChapelle would veto any proposed increase to the mayoral salary.

Mayoral salaries have recently been reviewed in other nearby cities, including in Northampton where the City Council in June approved a $37,500 pay increase for Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, who had been earning $92,500 as mayor, bringing that position to $130,000. The mayor of Greenfield earns about $93,000 annually and the mayor of West Springfield $120,000.

School Committee, City Council salaries

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the City Council voted on proposed increases to the School Committee and City Council salaries.

The proposed salary increases would bring School Committee member salaries up to $6,000, with $6,500 allotted for the School Committee Chair, and bring City Council member salaries up to $10,000, with $10,500 allotted for the City Council president. These changes would be effective Jan. 2, 2026. These proposed changes sparked debate about equity between the two bodies.

“I have a problem with paying our School Committee members almost half of what the City Council gets paid,” said Riley, who noted that he would not be comfortable with any dollar amount for either committee unless it is equal to the compensation for the other.

Peake agreed with this sentiment, saying he finds the idea that the City Council works harder than the School Committee “silly.”

Councilor Koni Denham said she supports the raise for School Committee members, but not the raises for the City Council, as raising the School Committee salaries to the proposed level would make them equal with that of the City Council members. Councilors Jason Tirrell and Tamara Smith expressed their agreement, with Smith noting that School Committee members have been facing lawsuits and attacks on social media in the past few years, adding to the stress of their duties.

Councilor Owen Zaret expressed support for the School Committee raises, but disagreed that their salaries should be equal to the City Council’s, as the bodies have different duties. He proposed an amendment to lower the School Committee raises slightly, to $5,000 and $5,500 for the chairperson, but this amendment failed.

Ultimately, the councilors voted to approve the proposed raises of $6,000 and $6,500, which will bring up School Committee salaries from $4,000 and $4,250 for the chair.

But when it came time to decide on the City Council’s 2026 raises, the council voted down the proposed amounts, with many expressing concern that the increase was too dramatic and would be perceived as greedy.

“If you’re doing this for the money, you shouldn’t be doing this,” Tirrell said.

Kwiecinski raised concerns that the low compensation for city councilors might dissuade individuals with lower incomes to pursue positions on the council. Other councilors recognized the validity of this concern, but overall voiced the opinion that the role of city councilor is a public service position, and they did not put forth their candidacy with the assumption that it would become their full-time job.

“I am choosing to be here because I want to give back to my community,” said Denham, who later said that she found the proposed increases “excessive” and stated that “more people leave this council not because of the salary but because of the way they’re treated.”

The council voted against the proposed increases, leaving city councilor salaries at $6,000, with $6,500 allotted for the council president.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.