Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday narrowly voted to approve salary increases for their own members beginning in 2026, but rejected proposed raises for the city controller and mayor after both said they did not want one.
Council members’ annual salaries will rise from $7,100 to $10,650 and the council president’s salary from $7,600 to $11,400. In a preliminary vote earlier this month, council members approved that increase by a narrow 4-3 margin, with members Kiera Wilhelm, Hillary Kwiatek, Michael Colon and Colleen Laird voting in favor and Bryan Callahan, Rachel Leon and Grace Crampsie Smith voting against. In a final vote Tuesday night, members approved the increases by that same margin, cementing the new salaries for newly elected City Council members.
The raises will take effect after each seat on City Council is up for reelection, meaning that newly elected council members will see a raise in 2026.
Wilhelm introduced the proposal because she said prospective council candidates may see the low pay as a barrier to running. Because the raise will only take effect after an election cycle, she disputed the idea that council members were voting to raise their own salaries. Wilhelm’s term expires at the end of 2025 and she is not seeking another term.
“The least we can do to make this position slightly more accessible to more people,” Wilhelm said.
Under two related proposals, the mayor’s salary would have increased from $90,500 to $98,000, and the controller’s from $49,000 to $56,000. But both the mayor and city controller, who are up for reelection this year, called on City Council to reject the proposal and said that they did not want a raise.
Mayor J. William Reynolds previously said he planned to veto a bill to raise the mayor’s salary, and city Controller George Yasso on Tuesday told council he had asked Reynolds to also veto the controller salary increase, if approved.
But neither proposal will reach the mayor’s desk. Council rejected the mayor’s raise by a 3-4 margin, with Leon, Kwiatek and Wilhelm voting in favor, and Colon, Callahan, Crampsie Smith and Laird voting against it. The controller’s raise failed 2-5, with Kwiatek and Wilhelm voting in favor, and all others voting against it.
Addressing council Tuesday night, Yasso said that he opposes the raise because of his “fiduciary, ethical and moral responsibilities” to the city. Yasso is running unopposed for a third term as the city’s financial watchdog this year, and said that he felt it would be a conflict of interest to accept a raise that he is almost guaranteed to benefit from next year.
“How would I have any credibility with anybody in the city that pays taxes, the very people I’m sworn to represent as a fiduciary agent, if I sit and say nothing only to individually benefit later on?” Yasso said.
Reynolds was not present at the meeting Tuesday, but city Solicitor John Spirk confirmed his plans to veto the proposal if approved.
Even though council rejected the mayor and controller’s raises, they vowed to revisit them next year. Reynolds, as mayor, is limited to two terms, so, if reelected, his next term would be his last. Yasso announced Tuesday that he would not seek another term after the following one, too. So if raises were approved next year, neither Reynolds nor Yasso would directly benefit.
A majority of City Council expressed support for those raises, and voted against them only because they were asked to do so by the controller and mayor. According to Wilhelm, the mayor is paid less than most of the city’s department heads (city controller is a part-time position), and adjusting both salaries would would rectify that.
“I fully intend to bring those back to the table early in the new year,” Laird said.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at [email protected].
