NEWBURYPORT — Monday night turned out to be a good one for whoever is mayor in 2026 after the City Council increased the position’s salary by $22,250 a year.
The council, however, was not so kind to itself shooting down a motion to raise its own annual salary by $1,000. The salary will remain $9,000 a year, with the council president making $11,000.
The measure failed by a 5-6 vote with Ward 4 City Councilor Ben Harman, Ward 1 City Councilor Sharif Zeid, Ward 3 Councilor Heath Granas, and at-Large Councilors Heather Shand, Ed Cameron and Connie Preston voting against.
“That (money) could go toward any number of things that I think would help us to do our work more efficiently, more transparently and potentially better then going into my pocket,” Harman said.
The final vote came after at least 45 minutes of discussion that included passing an amendment to the original order floated by at-Large Councilor Afroz Khan. Khan’s amendment increased the annual salary up to $10,000. No change was proposed for the council president.
Considering Khan’s amendment passed by a 6-5 margin, its overall failure seemed to take many on the board, as well as spectators in the council chambers by surprise.
Those who voted against Khan’s amendment were Zeid, Harman, Granas, Shand and Cameron.
Zeid authored the original order, which would have kept the earnings the same but changed the City Council’s salary to a stipend.
He said he was “very much opposed to” the direction the amendment took.
“The numbers are fairly small, $1,000 is not large figure as a percentage of the entire city budget,” he said. “But the message that is being sent to residents and other stakeholders is not the message that I would like to see sent.”
Khan countered by saying she wants to see more people running for City Council. Increasing the annual salary, she added could go a long way toward bringing more candidates into the fold.
“The residents need to hold us accountable,” she said. “And I hope that they recognize this nominal, additional $1,000, which is $10,000 across the board, is warranted. Because we work our butts off in here, we really do.”
Ward 5 Councilor Jim McCauley agreed with Khan. He also asked to increase the council’s salary by 1% annually, thereby making it a 2% raise at the end of every two-year term beginning in July, 2026.
“I think we need to signal to others in the larger community who want to participate in the government that it’s okay and we’re willing to pay you for that, going forward,” he said.
Ward 2 Councilor Jennie Donahue she would like to see the city attract people like herself who may not be as financially well off as her fellow councilors.
Ward 6 Councilor Byron Lane said he didn’t run for a seat on the council for the money.
“I don’t think anybody sitting here is doing it for the money,” he said. “But, to attract people in the future, you’ve got to keep up with, ‘is it worth your time?'”
Harman said $10,000 times 11 councilors could pay for much-needed positions like a legislative aid or minute taker during public meetings.
The proposed raise would have been the first pay increase for the council since 2021. The annual salary will also remain just that and not become a stipend.
A request to increase the School Committee’s annual stipend from $3,000 to $4,000 also failed to pass the council by a 7-4 vote, with Lane, Donahue, Cameron and Khan supporting the measure.
Donahue reiterated her interest in seeing more people from different walks of life running for office.
Under the failed order, the committee’s vice chair would have also seen a bump in annual pay from $3,600 to $5,000.
Far more successful was the council’s unanimous vote to raise the mayor’s annual salary to $125,000 from the current $102,750.
Although Mayor Sean Reardon has made it known he intends to run for a second term next year, the salary increase will not go into effect until the next mayoral term begins in January, 2026.
Starting in July, 2026, the mayor’s pay will also increase by 2% each fiscal year.
McCauley said the pay raise was necessary to attract the best possible candidates for the job.
“We want to make sure that this position is funded and funded appropriately, moving forward,” he said.
A request to transfer $159,041 from free cash to replace a roughly 21-year-old water heater at the high school was also unanimously referred to the council’s Budget and Finance subcommittee for future discussion. Reardon told The Daily News on Friday the city had $2,834,498 in free cash. The transfer would reimburse Newburyport Public Schools which paid for the water heater.
At a Dec. 2 School Committee meeting, Reardon expressed his reluctance to dip into free cash and said school officials should tap school choice money instead. School Superintendent Sean Gallagher argued that school choice money (collected from districts which send students to Newburyport schools) could not be used for capital improvement projects.
The council also voted 9-2 to reduce its annual regular meetings from 22 to 17, with Khan and Donahue voting against.