With More Pay Comes More Accountability for NYC Government Officials

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on Intro 2196. My name is Rachael Fauss, and I am a Senior Policy Advisor for Reinvent Albany. Reinvent Albany advocates for transparent and accountable government in New York.

We support competitive salaries for elected and appointed government officials because we want government service to appeal to a broad spectrum of qualified candidates.

We were encouraged that the Council reached an agreement with Mayor Mamdani to appoint a Quadrennial Compensation Commission, and appreciate the Commission’s acknowledgement that our public testimony informed their report and recommendations. This Council hearing is another important opportunity for the City Council to hear from the public about the proposed compensation legislation, which incorporates the recommendations of the Quadrennial Commission and the Council’s own perspective. 

In brief, here are our positions on the various components of Intro 2196:

1. Salary increases for elected officials – SUPPORT
   • Mayor: $305,800 up from $258,750 
   • Comptroller: $247,100 up from $209,050
   • Public Advocate: $218,400 up from $184,800
   • Borough Presidents: $211,800 up from $179,200
   • Speaker of the City Council: $194,440 up from $164,500
   • City Council Members: $175,500 up from $148,500
   • District Attorneys: $251,500 up from $212,800
2. Reforms to commission process – SUPPORT
   • Commission will re-start in 2028 (third year of term) and appointed every four years thereafter
   • Salary increases would take effect the year after mayoral elections, next in 2030, but for this one-time increase in 2026
   • Commission has 120 days to issue a report, up from 75
3. Automatic 8.25% increase/inflation adjustment if future commissions are not formed – OPPOSE
   • This provision would effectively eliminate all public input regarding elected officials’ salaries if a Quadrennial Commission is not formed. Currently, the City Council must pass legislation to enact all pay raises, triggering a public hearing – whether or not it is upon the recommendation of the Quadrennial Commission. 
   • The commission process at the city level is one of few opportunities for the public to discuss with policymakers not only appropriate salary levels, but also important reforms like caps or bans on outside income, and financial disclosure transparency. 
   • Additionally, this proposal may create an incentive for the Mayor to not convene the commission because it is the path of least resistance.
4. Require the Comptroller to publish a table of elected officials’ salaries – SUPPORT
   • The bill, however, should specifically state that this information is to be published on the Comptroller’s website.

NYC Council has Traditionally Accompanied Raises for Itself with Ethics and Transparency Reforms
We encourage the Council to accompany any salary increase legislation with additional reforms to ethics or transparency. In 2015, the City Council required elected officials’ disclosure forms be published on the Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) website, and eliminated lulus. The Council must continue this important tradition of providing a benefit to the public, while they themselves reap the benefit of a pay increase. Specifically, we recommend the following:

• The Council should be required to provide reasons in writing whenever it modifies or does not accept the recommendations of the Quadrennial Commissions – The Quadrennial Commission endorsed Reinvent Albany and Citizens Union’s recommendation to do this.
• The Council should remove mentions of stipends, aka “lulus” in the City Charter – The Quadrennial Commission asked the Council to consider this change, which we support. 
• The Council should make financial disclosures more accessible. The Quadrennial Commission stated that our proposals in this area “have merit” though felt they were outside their purview. Fortunately,  you, the Council, have the authority to make this happen.
  • Require elected officials’ forms to be available in an open data format. We note that this would require COIB to upgrade its databases, which COIB told the Council at the June 2026 budget hearing it would like to do.
  • Require all of the financial disclosure statements from the times current and former elected officials were in office be available on the COIB website. Currently, forms of former officials, like Eric Adams’s statement from 2025, must still be requested from COIB, which triggers a notification. This should be corrected. 
  • Remove the notification requirement for requests for all financial disclosure statements. The State does not require the identity of a person requesting a financial disclosure to be disclosed to the government official, nor should New York City. At the state level, it is simply submitted as a FOIL request.

Thank you for your consideration. Should you have any questions, please email Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor, at rachael@reinventalbany.org.

Click here to view the testimony as a PDF.