The spotlight on Chicago officials contemplating pay raises as residents grapple with inflation intensified Friday, with the city clerk and treasurer defending a proposed salary bump topping 20%.
City Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin stand to see their salaries both increase to $161,016 from $133,545 under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2023 budget. During Friday’s budget hearings, the two officials said they would accept that raise.
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“The goal is to reach an equitable and fair salary for the City Clerk position,” Valencia said in a statement to the Tribune. “If the ordinance passes and I am lucky enough to serve as City Clerk next term, I will accept.”
Conyears-Ervin was more pointed in her defense, attempting to turn the tables on City Council members for benefiting from their own salary increases while her pay and Valencia’s pay have remained stagnant.
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“The mayor, clerk and treasurer — the roles have not seen any type of increase. The salary has been flat for at least 16, 17 years,” said Conyears-Ervin, whose husband, Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, will also take a raise next year.
She continued: “During that time period … — not pointing to anyone in this chamber, just pointing to effect — the aldermanic salary increased from $95,000 to $142,000. … So while the clerk and treasurer’s role at this point has an adjustment, it’s certainly well below — well below — a 50% increase.”
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Under a 2006 city ordinance, aldermen automatically get annual salary bumps tied to the consumer price index, unless they individually turn them down. Those raises usually arrived without fanfare, but steep inflation has pushed next year’s pay increase to 9.6%, which means the highest-paid aldermen will see their compensation go up by about $12,530 each, to about $142,780.
Seventeen City Council members so far have opted out of that raise, citing the sensitivity of their constituents’ financial struggles. Last time around, that number was five.
Aldermanic raises operate on a different schedule than that of elected citywide positions such as the mayor, city clerk and treasurer, offices whose pay hasn’t changed since 2006. City Council members who accept the annual raises see them kick in Jan. 1, while the clerk and treasurer’s raises wouldn’t go into effect until May.
Lightfoot’s salary will remain at $216,210 next year, under her budget.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said during the hearing that he appreciated Conyears-Ervin’s “candor” but pointed out that several City Council members are rejecting the raise, himself included.
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“I got into this job for public service, not for the paycheck,” Reilly said. “And I think it’s also worth pointing out and to her credit, Mayor Lightfoot is not scheduled for any sort of raise this year. And yet all three of you are our leaders for the city. So I would just ask that you could consider whether or not this is the appropriate year to be accepting that.”
Another alderman who turned down his 2023 raise, Marty Quinn, 13th, said he was “all for people getting raises. … I’d just be cognizant of the optics.”
Reilly and Quinn, along with Aldermen Matthew O’Shea, 19th, and Brian Hopkins, 2nd, are spearheading a proposed ordinance to prohibit raises for aldermen and other city officials during the 2023 fiscal year.
Conyears-Ervin earlier had said she was “very sensitive” to inflation and felt its effects too, but the law mandates that she and Valencia can receive pay increases only during an election year. Valencia recently announced she would seek to retain her city clerk seat in the Feb. 28 local election, following a failed run for Illinois secretary of state. Conyears-Ervin has not officially declared a reelection campaign.
Lightfoot’s budget office added in a Friday statement: “Fair adjustments to these positions help to expand the universe of citizens who may decide to give back to their community.”
Ald. David Moore, 17th, said Conyears-Ervin’s explanation of a 20.5% raise after 17 years of no pay increases made enough sense to him.
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“I can go to my residents, and I can defend that,” Moore said.
