By Doug Miller
A resolution was on Wednesday evening's City Council agenda to remove the raises, and Eaton said in an interview Monday that if the measure passed he would quit. "I view this as a commitment they have made to me, and I expect them to keep this commitment," Eaton said.
The Council meeting took place after the Herald's deadline.
Eaton said he was promised the raises would go through by the three Democrats on the City Council as a condition of his return to the job. This would seem to defy the informal ban on hiring and raises the council tacitly agreed to when they enacted - or failed to prevent - the 25-percent tax increase that went into effect last Saturday. While no formal ban was enacted, council members used words like "unconscionable" to describe the idea. Budgeted raises for the city manager and city councilmembers were already repealed, but a previous attempt to cut the rest of the raises last month was tabled when the council couldn't decide on which managers the budget lines applied to. Hours later, John Laffey resigned as city manager, apparently out of frustration.
To make the raises more palatable to the public, Democratic councilmen Robert Tepper and Leonard Remo said Eaton promised to cover the raises, which over the course of the year would mean almost $45,000 in additional spending, out of the city manager's $137,000 salary.
Depending on how long Eaton's tenure runs would seem to determine how attractive the job is for his replacement, by that math. Eaton said he expects to still be on the job on his wedding day in the middle of September. But if a solid replacement is found soon, that city manager will have to cover the cost of the raises out of his or her salary.
The Republican coalition on the Council said the deal with Eaton violated the council's deal with the taxpayers. "After the Democrats' first choice for city manager raised city property taxes an outrageous 25 percent, there was a huge public outcry and they promised to join with Councilman Tom Sofield and I in freezing all managerial/exempt salaries," Republican Jim Hennessy said in a statement. "Now, just as stunned residents are receiving their tax bills, Remo, Tepper and Tangney are breaking their word again. It's like pouring salt in an open wound."
But Tepper said the deal brought the city a proven commodity at city manager who could, if necessary, stick it out for the long haul. "I don't see much to this," Tepper said. "He's going to be here for a couple of months or a bit longer, as long as it takes. If he wants so badly to give a cost-of-living increase that he's willing to work for just a few bucks a month, fine with me."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
