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INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 140, No. 7
8 Pages – Free
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts and Culture
Sports
Weather
Free Expression
Kahan Concert
Split Weekend
Partly Cloudy
Cornell Law School kicked off the University's free speech academic theme with a panel discussion. | Page 3
Cornellians flock to Syracuse for the Stick season tour to see folk-pop artist Noah Kahan. | Page 5
Cornell field hockey splits weekend against Connecticut and Albany.
HIGH: 81º LOW: 62º
| Page 8
Negotiations Between Cornell, City of Ithaca Stall By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun Managing Editor
Cornell’s negotiation process with the City of Ithaca over its financial contributions to the City in the form of payment in lieu of taxes have ceased to progress as of Aug. 11, Mayor Laura Lewis wrote in a Sept. 7 press release. “The city entered the process motivated by a core belief that despite the tremendous overall economic impact the university community brings to the region and the city, Cornell’s direct financial contributions to the City are fundamentally lacking and fail to demonstrate a commitment to the needs of Cornell’s host city,” Lewis wrote in the statement.
As a higher education institution, Cornell is exempt from paying property taxes, but instead offers the City voluntary PILOT contributions. The University currently pays the City $1.6 million annually, which was dictated by a memorandum of understanding that outlined the amount Cornell contributes to the city since its inception in 1995. The MOU is set to expire in June 2024. Between April and August, four negotiation sessions were held between City and University officials, during which the City presented its proposal that Cornell pay around $8 million annually. Lewis said that the City arrived at the $8 million figure based on projections of Cornell’s tax-exempt real estate hold-
ings. Cornell’s property represents 45 percent of the city’s assessed property value, which would equate to approximately $33 million in property taxes paid to the City if Cornell was not tax-exempt. The City benchmarked its proposals against 25 percent of the $33 million. Cornell’s latest offer to the City was approximately $3.15 million annually. The City responded by proposing a $5 million contribution, but Cornell indicated it would not offer any additional increase from the $3.15 million proposal, according to Lewis. “To demonstrate what is Cornell’s deep commitment to the City, we have proposed more than doubling that voluntary contribution to $3.15 million a year,”
See FUNDING page 3
S.A. Exempts LGBT Union From Disclosing Members By MATTHEW KIVIAT Sun Contributor
MING DEMERS / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Structural changes | The role of Ithaca's mayor is changing due to the addition of a city manager, manifesting in a 51.2 percent salary decrease.
Common Council Slashes Mayoral Salary by 50% By CHRISTOPHER WALKER Sun Staff Writer
The Ithaca Common Council voted to change its payment structure for its members. At the Wednesday, Sept. 6 meeting, the Council decreased Ithaca’s mayoral salary by over 50 percent and increased the salary of Common Council alderpersons from $13,141 to $17,091, effective Jan. 1, 2024, when the new mayor and Council members are sworn in. This change comes due to the newly-developed city manager position, which will absorb “a majority of the Mayor’s current duties,” according to the Sept. 6 Common Council meeting agenda. The salary of Ithaca’s mayor was reduced from $61,489 to $30,000, representing a 51.2 percent decrease in salary. The previous salary was set in January 2022, raised from the previous salary adjustment of $58,561 in January 2016, when the mayor played a larger role in managing the City than they will in the upcoming year.
The alderperson salary raise — from $13,141 to $17,091 — represents a 30.1 percent increase. The law changing salary rates was passed with the justification that the city manager position would lessen the workload of the city’s mayor. The council established the revised salary amounts in an Aug. 9 special meeting. “The city is undertaking a transition, as we all know, to [a] city manager form of government,” Mayor Laura Lewis said. The City is actively recruiting for a city manager, whose salary will be between $160,000 to $185,000, as unanimously agreed upon in an Aug. 2 meeting. According to the City of Ithaca website, “with salary and benefits the Mayor, the Mayor’s executive assistant and the Chief of Staff cost the City approximately $213,000 [and] under the new structure, the fulltime city manager will earn a bit more than the Chief of Staff and the Mayor will earn slightly less than the current Mayor.” First introduced to Ithaca by former Mayor Svante
See SALARY page 3
The Student Assembly unanimously passed a resolution that exempts Haven, the Cornell LGBTQ+ student union, from disclosing their members’ names, a new requirement to apply for funding from the University, in a Thursday, Sept. 7 meeting. Haven, as a byline organization, receives money from the student activity fee, a mandatory fee which all students pay to fund student organizations. Byline-funded organizations each get a fraction of the student activity fee, which they use to fund their projects or subsidiary campus organizations. Campus organizations applied to receive byline funding for the 2024-2026 cycle until Sept. 8, and funding decisions are made by the Student Assembly by the end of the fall semester. Resolution 16: Allyship to the Cornell LGBTQ+ Community, was sponsored by assembly members Karys Everett ’25, LGBTQIA+ liaison at-large, Claire Ting ’25, executive vice president and Aissatou Barry ’24, vice president of diversity and inclusion and minority students liaison at-large. The
resolution was introduced alongside Piper Kohlenberger ’25 and Nic Oke ’26, co-presidents of Haven. Under the current student activity fee organization application — the form student organizations used to request funding from the student activity fee — aspiring byline-funded student organizations like Haven were required to provide all the names of its members in order to verify membership and
“Allyship isn't purely social, it must also be structural.” Claire Ting '25 engagement in the organization. According to the resolution, Haven lacks autonomy of where this information goes or who receives it, which can damage the “foundation of safety Haven has spent years cultivating.” Ting said that the byline application process, requiring the disclosure of Haven members’ names, can have many See ASSEMBLY page 3
Day of Remembrance
ANTHONY CORRALES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Flags placed on the Arts Quad by the Cornell Republicans honor those who lost their lives on the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.