Mayor de Blasio quietly agrees to 32% pay raise for City Council

Jennifer Fermino

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 6:17 PM

Mayor de Blasio has quietly agreed to give City Council members a 32% pay hike.

In a move that critics say appears to be an attempt at downplaying the controversial move, Hizzoner tucked a last minute notice into the City Record on Friday announcing he would sign into law a bill that guarantees the raises.

The mayor’s office by law must notify the public within five calendar days of a planned bill signing.

The pay raise notice came at the start of a three-day weekend — a time when pols typically bury unfavorable news — and was added so late it didn’t make the newsletter’s “public hearings” section. It was in the “late notice” section at the very end of the paper.

“It appears they don't want to draw too much public attention to the issue,” said Dick Dadey of the government watchdog group Citizens Union.

A bill that would rename several city streets — which passed on the same day as the pay raise package — won’t be signed for another week.

City Hall insisted they were being transparent.

Even if we had a plan to draw attention away from the signing, which we don't, the City Hall press corps would never allow an important bill signing to go unnoticed,” said press secretary Karen Hinton.

She said the street renaming signing is later because of scheduling issues with family members involved.

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32% pay raise 

Can you imagine what is a blue collar pay raise in New York City?

1%