BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak on Thursday defended the process that allowed her wife, a city employee, to get a big raise amid budget and job cuts.

The mayor’s wife is Burlington Water Resources Division Director Megan Moir, whose salary was recently boosted from nearly $125,000 to close to $141,000, a $16,000 raise.

The request, first reported by independent journalist Mike Donoghue and confirmed by WCAX News, was made just weeks before the city announced it would cut 25 municipal jobs due to an $8 million budget gap.

“That was a decision I had nothing to do with because I recused myself completely from the whole deliberative process, which is per policy,” the mayor said in a statement. She says the city has a market rate policy for assessing any position which fair and impartial.

In a memo from the public works director last month, he acknowledged that the city faces “financial challenges” but believed the raise was justified.

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