Boston City Council Unanimously Raises Councilor Salaries to $125,000

BOSTON — October 5, 2022 — Boston City Council unanimously raised city councilor salaries to $125,000 and the mayor's salary to $250,000, with both increases to take effect after the next election. Committee on Government Operations Chair Ruthzee Louijeune amended the mayor's original proposal — which called for $115,000 and $230,000 respectively — after her office produced comparative data showing peer cities such as Washington, D.C. ($141,000) and Seattle ($136,000) pay their councilors significantly more, and Boston's average two-bedroom rent hits $3,360 a month. The council also unanimously passed a home rule petition on expiring-use affordable housing, warning that 928 Boston apartments face conversion to market-rate housing, including 147 units for low-income seniors and disabled tenants at the Forbes building in Jamaica Plain. In a separate unanimous vote, the council adopted a resolution to rename a Roxbury park honoring Brigadier General Edward O. Gurdin — the first Black judge on the Roxbury District Court, a 1924 Paris Olympics silver medalist, and the first man to break 25 feet in the long jump — as the General Edward O. Gurdin African-American Veterans Memorial Park.