Salina, NY – Supervisors in Onondaga County’s four largest cities are getting raises this year, each up to 10%.
Not in Salina.
There, incoming Supervisor Raul Huerta convinced the City Council to cut his salary by nearly 34% before he even took office.
Huerta, 75, is a former university administrator. Last fall, he campaigned to reduce the salary of the chief in Salina, the county’s third-largest city. He wondered why he should get paid more when people were struggling to pay the bills.
“People are struggling to make ends meet,” he said shortly after his victory.
On November 10, the board reduced the salary for a full-time job to $50,000, from $75,566. Huerta, a Democrat, takes office this month, unseating Republican Nick Para.
In other large cities in the region, supervisors are getting raises. Some are equivalent to the cost of living.
Cicero’s new full-time supervisor, Democrat Rob Santucci, will receive $68,140, a 3.5% increase over 2025. Manlius’ John Deer, a Democrat incumbent, is receiving a 3% raise to $47,153.
Clay Supervisor Damian Ulatowski, a Republican incumbent, will take in $85,284 this year, up 6.6% from last year. Ulatowski also collects his state pension.
But in DeWitt, incumbent Democrat Max Ruckdeschel is getting a 10% raise from $61,000 to $67,1000.
Technically, the DeWitt post is a part-time job, as are the positions in Clay and Salina. Still, supervisors oversee cities with populations larger than some cities in New York State. Clay has a population of about 60,000. DeWitt has 26,000.
Salina has about 33,000 inhabitants.
Outgoing City Manager Nick Paro, a Republican, said he thinks the pay cut is a bad idea.
At the November meeting, Paro said he thought a full-time job deserved a more competitive full-time salary. According to him, the lower rate will make it more difficult to attract candidates for this position.
But in the end, Paro voted in favor of the cut, which was part of a larger final amendment to the city’s 2026 budget. It passed 5-0.
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