Pay hikes for City Council members?

Whispers inside City Hall suggest Council members are seeking steep pay hikes. A Nov. 12 Daily News article cited unnamed sources as saying they want a 71-percent salary increase. That would bring individual salaries up to $192,500, plus stipends for chairing committees. 

Northwest Bronx Councilman Andrew Cohen played down the report in a recent interview.

“There’s no news here,” he said.

Mr. Cohen explained that while rumors of the raise came up in the media, no official report has come through City Council yet.

“I do not believe the City Council will act in absence of a report,” he added.

Police officers and firefighters are expected to see marginal pay hikes this year, on the order of about 3 percent.

Former congressman Anthony Weiner penned a Nov. 12 op-ed in The Daily News vocalizing his support of a pay raise for the City Council — if every member commits to legislating full-time.

“Whatever you think of the merits of the case, one thing is fact: if Assemblymember was treated like a full-time job, there would be no conflicts of interest because there would be only one interest that could pay a legislator — the citizens,” Mr. Weiner wrote, saying the same goes for the Council.

“The body would be better served by being full-time legislators,” Mr. Cohen concurred.

“If we want our City Council to be accountable only to us, then we should make that the law. Pay them a salary that reflects the responsibility they have,” Mr. Weiner wrote. “And fire them if they don’t do a good job.”

Klein targets ‘scheme’

Bronx state Sen. Jeff Klein recently spoke out against marketing firm Herbalife, calling it a pyramid scheme. In an October 2015 report with Public Advocate Letitia James, the senator detailed how complaints to the Attorney General led to an undercover investigation of the healthy lifestyle company’s New York City clubs.