NORWALK, Conn. – Among thoughtful answers about education, development and crime, Mayor Richard Moccia slipped in this pants-igniter Wednesday night at a candidates forum in East Norwalk.
“I didn’t take the pay raise. I turned it down,” he said.
“The” pay raise in question has not yet become available. He did, in fact, take pay raises in the past – he’s been mayor for nearly eight years – but the pay hike that was being discussed Wednesday night goes to the mayor who is elected – or re-elected – Nov. 5. Moccia has danced around the issue of whether he would take it.
The Common Council voted in February to grant a pay raise to the next mayor, boosting the salary 21.5 percent, from $113,963 as of Jan. 1, 2012, to $138,465 as of Jan. 1, 2014 — a raise of $24,502.
Moccia said in June that the money is in the 2013-2014 budget as a contingency to cover that raise – if necessary.
“In November, whoever the mayor is can make the decision whether they want to ask for the money to fund the pay raise,” he said.
Multiple Internet searches show no public statements saying he will not take the raise.
The topic came up at Wednesday’s meet-the-candidate event organized by the East Norwalk Association.
Moccia’s challenger, former Norwalk Police Chief Harry Rilling, said one of the first things he would do if he becomes mayor is to ask the Common Council to rescind the raise.
“In this economy, I thought that was inappropriate,” he said of the council vote. “I thought that was not the right thing to do.”
Moccia smiled and shook his head when Rilling mentioned it.
The mayor has said in the past that he declined pay raises when the ordinance employees were taking furloughs but has gotten pay hikes since then.
Moccia is listed in documents as making in $113,963 in 2012, a significant jump from the $99,616 he is listed as making in 2010. His salary increased more than 14 percent from 2010 to 2012 – in pure dollars, an average of $4,773 per year.
“You can’t get a raise while you’re in office,” Moccia said in June. “I got a raise that went into effect in January, after I was elected. You can’t get two raises while you’re in office, so it was the new salary set for whoever was elected. I happen to have been elected; in January I got the raise. But I didn’t get another raise in the second year.”
That comment was in response to statements made by Norwalk letter writer Peter Berman, who said that Moccia had promised not to take the new raise.
Moccia expressed irritation at that.
“I said to (Berman), I did not take it,” he said. “Which is true — the money did not go into the budget. Because I said, quite honestly, ‘Let’s see what happens in November. Then whoever who is in office, whether it’s me or someone, can make the decision about their pay.’”
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