Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra was recently criticized by the leader of the city council for giving raises to employees as he looks to close a $54 million hole in next year's budget. Now, it appears that the mayor has given more raises than first reported.
According to the city, Segarra gave three sets of increases to non-unionized workers in this fiscal year.
First, he gave 100 or so line-level employees a 2.5 percent hike last August -- half of what is traditionally given, and something they hadn't gotten in the prior two fiscal years. The city says it had the money to spend on those raises because the last fiscal year ended favorably.
Then, in September, Segarra did performance reviews and gave his department heads pay increases between roughly three and four percent. Finally, in the fall, the mayor decided to give raises to his direct reports -- the highest of which was a $20,000 raise to Chief of Staff Jared Kupiec. According to new information from the city, Segarra also gave five percent raises to his two of his closest advisors: Saundra Kee Borges, the city's lawyer, and David Panagore, his chief operating officer.
Panagore says the raises are all paid from savings within each department's budget. He also said that while the timing may look off -- Segarra is trying to find a way to fill a ten percent hole in next year's budget -- the reasoning is sound.
"As a management philosophy, it's within the confines of the budget to be able to keep management and upper level staff focused and be able to keep them happy at their work because certainly the demands and the stress during these financial times just continues to build."
Segarra also gave himself a raise -- bringing his salary in line with that of a state court judge, as spelled out in the city's charter.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.
UPDATE: Click here for more information on the raises.
