Capone Measure Removing It Put Off
By Josh Resnek
With four members absent and the sponsor of a measure to curtail the mayor’s longevity payment of $40,000 a year at home with COVID-19 being one of them, the matter was put off for two weeks.
By that time, it is believed Councilor Fred Capone, who has come down with COVID-19, will have returned to normal and will be available to attend the next meeting of the council.
Without Capone there Monday night to lead a lonely charge, Councilor Mike Marchese was left the business of dealing with the issue.
“Let’s send the matter to the Attorney General for a legal ruling,” Marchese suggested.
“The $40,000 a year longevity payment to the mayor is all wrong,” he later told the Leader Herald.
Marchese also wondered how the longevity payment is made.
“Does the mayor receive a check for $40,000 or are the taxes taken from it? And if the taxes aren’t taken from it, how do we know the mayor has paid the taxes on it?” he said.
“Maybe the IRS ought to look into this as well,” he suggested.
‘Maybe the creators of the city budget should show it as a line item,” he suggested as well.
Councilors Gerly Adrien, Mike McLaughlin, Richard Dell Isola and Capone were absent from Monday’s meeting.
Without Capone present, the issue had no spark with the councilors other than Marchese.
The longevity payment to the mayor, not noted for the public to see in the city budgets, was scrutinized in a detailed Boston Globe article questioning not just the longevity payment but noting that the mayor makes more than anyone serving as mayor in Massachusetts.
The Leader Herald has published at least three front page stories during the past six months indicating and detailing the mayor’s salary.
He is the highest paid mayor in the state. He makes more than the mayor of Boston.