East Hartford Mayor Marcia Leclerc will receive a 2.5% salary increase for 2019 and 2020, the town council voted last week.
The council voted unanimously to boost the mayor’s pay from $95,392 to $97,777 on Nov. 11, and then to $100,221 in November 2020.
The ordinance committee reviews the mayor’s salary every two years. The panel based its recent recommendation on increases in the consumer price index of 2.1 and 2.2% in 2017 and 2018, as well as a Connecticut Conference of Municipalities survey of towns with similar populations and nearby communities, according to meeting minutes.
Leclerc has been in office since January 2011, when former mayor Melody Currey was named commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
The council also raised the pay of the voter registrars’ and their deputies. The registrars are currently paid $25,000 a year and deputy registrars receive $8,000 annually. That will increase to $26,000, effective Jan. 1, 2020 and to $27,000 in January 2021. Deputy registrars’ pay will increase to $9,000 in 2020 and would remain at that level in 2021.
Only one person — former mayor Susan Kniep — spoke at a public hearing on the salary changes, according to minutes. Kniep said elected officials should receive no raises, “since any increase would set a precedent for union employees,” according to minutes of the hearing.
The council also followed the ordinance committee’s recommendations on changes to the mayor’s vacation time policy. The mayor was previously allowed three weeks of vacation, or the amount they would receive under existing town personnel policy, whichever was greater. The allowance is now four weeks for an incoming mayor and five weeks for a mayor with more than two terms, consistent with how vacation time is handled for department heads in union contracts.
Also, the mayor now will be allowed to accrue up to 50 days of vacation. Former rules said the mayor could not accumulate vacation time other than for their last year in office.
Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com
