Top City Officials' Salaries Reviewed At Milford Board Meeting

MILFORD, CT — The Board of Aldermen considered proposed pay increases for fire chiefs, police chiefs, the mayor, and the city clerk at its Oct. 6 meeting.

Pay raises were approved for fire and police leaders but narrowly rejected for the mayor and city clerk.

Under the proposal, the mayor's salary would have increased to $126,710 this year; the city clerk's salary would have increased to $96,812.

Board member Holly Mulrenan said, "I believe that it's really not in the best interests of the residents of Milford to go forward with this recommendation."

She said that this was in consideration of the cost increases just passed for the fire and police departments. Mulrenan said neither mayoral candidate Richard Smith nor the city clerk asked for an increase and neither position has a recruitment issue.

City Attorney Jonathan Berchem said that the requested increase is one that typically comes to the board ahead of a new term for these officials. State law prohibits salary increases for elected officials in the middle of a term.

The measure ended in a seven-to-seven vote, which failed to pass.

The board unanimously passed salary increases for fire chiefs and assistant chiefs as well as police chiefs and deputy chiefs.

The police union contract was approved and signed last month and the requests for leadership follows the "typical practice" of the chief and deputy chief staying in line with union increases, Berchem said.

The proposal calls for the police chief to make up to $162,809 this year; the deputy chief would make up to $135,335.

The fire chief and assistant chiefs salaries were below market level for similarly sized departments and communities. The newly proposed wage hike would put these leaders' salaries at the average of seven comparable communities, according to city data.

The assistant fire chiefs would make up to $134,855 and the fire chief would make up to $156,339.

The board approved the measure unanimously. Retroactive pay of $35,000 total for the chief and two assistant chiefs also passed unanimously.

View the full minutes of the meeting by going to the city's website.

View the full meeting by clicking here.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly summarized Mulrenan's remarks about whether the mayor was requesting a salary increase.