It looks as though the Liverpool Village Board is poised to give itself a raise.
After all, it has been for 16 long years since our most-local elected officials received a small bump in their annual salaries.
As the trustees approved a 2017-18 general fund budget of $2,469,109 at their April 13 meeting, Trustee Christina Fadden Fitch suggested that they consider approving nominal raises.
“This is the right time to talk about it,” Fitch said.
Trustees presently earn annual salaries of $4,000 while the mayor earns $8,000.
The last time those office-holders received raises was in 2001 when trustees’ salaries went from $3,000 annually to $4,000, and the mayor’s salary jumped from $6,000 to $8,000.
Those raises came shortly after Mayor Marlene Ward first took office in 2001.
L’pool lags behind
Fitch recently studied the pay scales of office-holders in communities such as Baldwinsville, Minoa, Solvay and North Syracuse and said Liverpool lagged behind.
She found, for instance, that the mayor of Baldwinsville makes $15,000 a year, while each of the six trustees are paid more than $5,400 annually.
Fitch suggested Liverpool consider pay hikes of $250 or $500 for trustees and $500 or $1,000 for the mayor and the Village Justice Anthony LaValle, who currently earns $12,981 each year.
“If we want to be able to recruit new people,” she said, “the village should think about these pay levels.”
As the public portion of their May 15 meeting drew to a close, the trustees entered into an executive session at which the issue of pay raises was likely discussed.
Tax bills on the way
Keep an eye on your mailbox. Village Clerk Mary Ellen Sims reported that tax bills will go out to village property owners on May 31.
Stretching the truth
Turns out, there aren’t as many people as we’d thought who are upset about the proposed 108-unit Meyer apartment complex at 1225 Tulip St., in the village of Liverpool.
Last month anti-manor activist Jan Quitzau, who lives in Liverpool, joined with the Johnson Tract Neighborhood Group led by Peg Salvatore to pass petitions to be delivered to the village and town governments.
“We’ve already collected more than 200 signatures from homeowners on both sides of the Thruway opposing the development and zoning change,” Quitzau told me.
But in fact, just 168 signatures were listed on the petition received at the Village Hall, according to Liverpool Mayor Gary White.
Central New York developer Cosimo Zavaglia wants to build the complex on Marvin Meyer’s property located within the village limits just north of the Thruway and immediately south of Donald Place.
Many of his neighbors’ homes, such as those in the Johnson Tract on Donald Place, are located outside village limits in the town of Salina, but Tulip Street residents south of the Thruway such as Quitzau also think the project could negatively affect their quality of life.
But there’s no reason to exaggerate the number of petitioners. That just makes it look as though the naysayers need to stretch the truth.
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