Tensions ran high at an Ithaca Common Council budget meeting Thursday as council members voted for funding for a reparations study and an amendment that could potentially increase the salary of the mayor.
The meeting included over 20 amendment proposals that made additions and cuts to the current $107 million spending plan that would increase the tax levy by around eight percent.
Mayoral salary
The meeting, which lasted five hours, ended with three council members leaving the chamber in frustration and refusing to vote on a budget amendment which set aside money to go to the mayor’s salary.
The mayor’s salary is currently set at $30,000. The amendment could potentially bring the mayor’s salary to over $60,000. Local law would still need to be changed at a later date for the pay raise to go through.
Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo did not take part in the vote or discussion.
Some council members argued that the city’s transition to a form of government that gives more responsibility to a city manager rather than the mayor, justified a lower salary. The council approved a slash to the mayoral salary last year because of that transition. Before that the mayor made around $60,000 a year.
Council members in favor of the salary increase said the mayor’s position takes up around the same amount of time as a full-time job and should be compensated accordingly.
Third Ward Alderperson David Shapiro argued that the mayor’s duties should be divided amongst council members.
“The fact that our mayor is working 40 hours a week is his own design,” Shapiro said.
He said the council should operate more like the Tompkins County Legislature, which elects a chair from among its members.
“I would see us in a few years thinking about eliminating the mayor from this type of structure. I don't actually see the need for it at all,” Shapiro said.
He indicated that he wanted to file an ethics investigation concerning the vote.
“It screams to me of outside influences,” he said.
Alderperson Clyde Lederman, who sponsored the amendment, said the mayor performs important duties that constitute a full-time commitment.
“I feel, with the government transition as with everything, it's imperfect,” he said. “I think compensating someone fairly is the least we can do.”
Before the vote, during a recess in the council chambers, Alderperson Kayla Matos engaged in a heated argument with Shapiro.
“This is all bullshit,” Shapiro said.
After council members Matos and Lederman objected, he later added, “What’s not right is how this is coming to process.”
“The following regular budgetary processes where a council member brought it forward and the mayor recused himself? That's not right? Make that make sense,” Matos responded.
The council initially voted against the measure, ending in a 5-5 tie. Alderpersons Margaret Fabrizio, Pierre Saint-Perez, Phoebe Brown, Patrick Kuehl and Shapiro voted against the measure.
However, near the end of the meeting, Kuehl called a revote on the issue.
Alderpersons Shapiro, Brown, and Fabrizio then left the meeting, seemingly out of frustration.
“Y’all are fake as f— right about now,” Brown said. “I’m not voting on nothing. This is not right.”
The remaining council members debated whether to table the measure, delaying the approval of the full budget. Alderperson Tiffany Kumar said the departures were intended to disrupt the voting process and set a bad precedent for the council.
“I will not be held hostage by three council members,” she said.
Ultimately, the remaining seven members went forward with the vote, which passed 6-1.
Reparations study
Earlier that evening the council approved $50,000 in funding for research on the legacy of discrimination against Black Ithacans that could inform future legislation.
Generally, reparations refers to the redirecting of money to Black communities to try to make amends for the impacts of slavery and racist policies.
Council members Brown and Matos introduced the proposal.
In a prior statement, Brown noted that the city of Evanston, Illinois has already implemented some local reparations. The Chicago suburb takes money from tax on cannabis and puts it towards cash and housing down payment assistance for Black residents.
New York City is also studying the impact of racial injustice in the city.
Alderperson Fabrizio said she supported reparations generally, but did not think the council should pay for a study due to increases to the tax levy.
“We have to make choices. This is a tough job. Toughen up,” she said.
Fabrizio said that researchers in the community should take on studying the subject, and report back to the council.
“We don't need to put $50,000 into doing this. We have people here who can do this, I believe that, and there's a lot of research that's been done that could be built upon,” she said.
Brown objected to Fabrizio’s comments.
“All the educated people in Ithaca have not even started a reparations study,” Brown said. “So if this was something that they wanted to do, it would have been done.”
Brown said repeated refusal to act on reparations legislation made Black residents feel like they are not important or valued.
“I just want to make it clear that Black people have been asking for reparations, not a reparations study, since the 1800s,” Brown said. “This is 2024.”
The measure passed 8-3, with alderpersons Shapiro, Fabrizio and Saint-Perez voting against the measure.
Brown previously tried to spearhead reparations legislation in 2022, although the funding propositions didn’t make it into the budget.