Mayor Adrian Fenty’s lavish pay packages for his key aides were jammed through the D.C. Council at the last minute by a process that subverted good government, some council members said Wednesday Council Members Carol Schwartz and Phil Mendelson criticized the late-hour deal that they say was necessary because Fenty had struck compensation agreements with Fire Chief Dennis Rubin, schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier that were outside city law.
To fix that, the council added two new tiers to the city’s executive pay scale at the request of the mayor. Under the old five-tier scale, the maximum amount a city employee could be paid was $179,096. The new scale adds two tiers, with the maximum salary now allowed set at $279,900 — about the amount Rhee will be paid under her agreement with the mayor.
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Without the bill, Rhee could not have been paid, Mendelson said.
Schwartz succeeded in amending the bill to force the mayor to seek council approval any time he wants to offer a salary greater than $179,900. The amendment was necessary so the council so it would no longer have to “rubber-stamp” Fenty’s agreements after they have been made, Schwartz said
Mendelson also criticized a July 9 letter Fenty sent to both him and Chairman Vincent Gray seeking support for emergency legislation to fix pension plans for Lanier and Rubin outlined in their contracts. Both have been paying into their pension plans in violation with their agreements with the city, he said.
Mendelson succeeded in amending an unrelated bill to pay Lanier, who makes $175,000 annually, an additional $16,000, and Rubin an extra $11,000 in addition to his $165,000 salary to compensate for the discrepancy. Mendelson has planned an Oct. 11 hearing on Lanier and Rubin’sretirement plans.
“Frankly, I think it’s a disregard for the process,” Mendelson said of Fenty. “In the long run, it doesn’t work to make promises that other people have to keep.”
