City Council Members Defend Pay

Facing calls for change from government watchdog groups, City Council Members are defending their six-figure salaries, stipend pay, and ability to earn as much as they can from outside jobs.

Council Member Joseph Addabbo, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens, said elections already provide a safeguard against council members spending too much time at outside jobs. If a council member has been distracted or stretched thin by outside employment, the city could rely on "the power of people to vote that person out or term limit them out," he said at a hearing of the Committee on Governmental Operations yesterday.

Council Member Larry Seabrook, a Democrat of the Bronx, defended council members' stipends and salaries, saying he "took an oath to serve, not an oath of poverty."

After voting themselves a 25% raise in 2006, increasing their pay to $112,500, the council is taking a look at issues concerning pay for its members.

The executive director of Citizens Union, Richard Dadey, said the council should ban stipends for heading a committee, limit outside income, take away the ability of council members to raise their own pay, and demand more detailed financial disclosure reports from council members.

Two council members said they agreed with the proposals from Citizens Union and another advocacy group, the New York Public Interest Research Group, but others were skeptical.

The chairman of the committee, Simcha Felder, said he hoped to adopt at least some of the suggested changes, but he would not say which ones might win broader support.