Niles mayor offers to cut his salary by 50 percent to save $34,000
Staff report
NILES
Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia, in an attempt to solve a $130,000 budget deficit for this year, volunteered to cut his annual salary in half to slash $34,000 of expenses.
His offer came up at a roundtable meeting with several council members and several other city officials Friday afternoon.
Afterward, Scarnecchia said he offered the give-back “to set an example for the other employees because ... everybody’s got to help” reduce the deficit.
That apparently also includes James DePasquale, the current service director, who is being asked to take on the position of safety director without any increase in pay.
The safety director job will become vacant Thursday with the resignation this week of the current safety director, Paul Hogan.
Scarnecchia and other city officials have experienced several challenges in recent weeks, including the resignation of Hogan and Treasurer Bob Swauger.
The city is in fiscal emergency and is required to operate with a balanced budget. Voters approved an income tax-increase at the primary election March 15, but the revenue from the tax won’t arrive quickly enough to prevent the city from having to make cuts to balance the budget.
The mayor also proposed city council members take pay cuts.