Proposed pay raises for the supervisor and town council members will be cut by more than half from what was originally proposed in Supervisor Tim Hubbard’s tentative 2025 budget, the supervisor said today.
The new proposal will increase the supervisor’s pay from $115,148 to $118,919, a 3.17% raise and boost the council members’s salaries from $48,955 to $50,558, or 3.27%. Hubbard’s tentative budget, which had been supported by the rest of the board, would have increased the supervisor’s salary to $125,148 (8.7%) and the council members’ salaries to $52,627 (7.5%).
Proposed raises for other elected officials — the town clerk, town assessors, tax receiver, town justices and highway superintendent — remain the same as the supervisor’s tentative budget.
The board will move to amend the preliminary 2025 budget to approve the new raises at its regular monthly meeting next week, which will be held on Thursday due to Election Day.
The new raises reflect “an increase [commensurate] with [town] CSEA union members salary/step increases for 2025,” which is a step increase of 1.25% and contractual increase of 2%, according to a draft resolution on the Nov. 7 meeting agenda.
The decision to increase elected officials’ salaries, while at the same time proposing a 7.92% increase to the town-wide tax levy — a record high since the 2% tax levy cap was imposed by the state in 2012 — faced criticism from some residents. Board members rejected that criticism during meetings in the last few weeks, arguing that Riverhead salaries are lower than the same positions in surrounding towns. The Town Board members’ salaries haven’t been increased in years — since 2008 for the town supervisor 2012 for council members.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town Board defends raises, explores park funding options, ahead of budget hearing
“I’m very comfortable with what we first put up, but I’m also aware that people are struggling and hurting,” Hubbard said in an interview after Thursday’s work session, where the resolution was briefly discussed.
Hubbard said the board will likely continue to give themselves raises in the future to “get up to where we should be compared to other towns.”
Council members Ken Rothwell and Joann Waski said after the meeting that they would refuse to take any raises. That act is not without precedent; former Council Member Jodi Giglio refused to take the last pay raise given to board members in 2012 and kept her salary at the 2011 level until she left the board in 2020, following her election to the State Assembly.
MORE COVERAGE: Hearing for 2025 town budget and tax cap override scheduled for Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.
The salaries proposed for elected officials in the 2025 budget, including the amendment up for vote next week, is as follows:
| Postion | Current salary | Proposed salary | % Increase |
| Town Supervisor | $115,148 | $118,919 | 3.17% |
| Council Members* | $48,955 | $50,558 | 3.27% |
| Town Clerk | $88,038 | $93,038 | 5.6% |
| Receiver of Taxes | $88,038 | $93,038 | 5.6% |
| Assessor (2) | $88,038 | $93,038 | 5.6% |
| Chairperson, Board of Assessors | $101,376 | $107,154 | 5.7% |
| Highway Superintendent | $99,543 | $104,543 | 5% |
| Town Justice (2)* | $88,800 | $93,038 | 5.6% |
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