By Linda Cooper: Founder and Administrator

Pay Raises Update

My public records request for the list of names and action forms of county managers who received raises of $5,000 to $10,000 between January 1, 2022, and March 2023, was missing a name, County Coordinator Wilbur Dean. 

Was it an oversight? Doubtful! Human Resources Director Jacqueline Martin provided the names of the managers receiving the raises, but Dean’s name was not on that list.  Martin stated in her reply email to my records request that it took her fifteen minutes to retrieve the names, but I would have to pay a special service charge for research on the action forms. The estimated cost was $50.96; that is 1.5 hours @ $33.97 per hour for her employee to retrieve the information. It was only seven pages based on the list of names. The action forms should have been previously scanned into an electronic file, at their fingertips, in a searchable database, at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

I decided I was not going to pay $50.96 for the records because I knew it did not require in-depth research per Florida Statute 119.07(4)(d). The Clerk’s office processes payroll for the county, so I made a records request to their office and received the information for $2.10, cost of the paper copies. The request did not require any intensive research and was done in a few minutes. After reviewing the action forms, I noticed there were eight names not seven, Coordinator Dean’s name was missing from Martin’s original list. 

I created a spreadsheet with information I was interested in for a quick outline of the increases. Martin reports directly to Dean and is not his supervisor, but her signature is on the action form as the approving department head. Dean reports directly to the commissioners. Why is her signature on the action form authorizing his $4.83 an hour raise on May 21, 2022?  

The new minimum wage raise increase pushed all wages up, not just minimum wage. Wage compression caused all salaries to increase. What you may not know is that when a government union negotiates pay raises for the rank-and-file employees it is common practice to give the same percentage raise to the managers. To understand the spreadsheet, you must know when you see “MOU to LIUNA” in the explanation for the increase, it is referring to the Memorandum of Understanding with the county’s labor union, LIUNA, Laborers’ International Union of North America. Those select manager LIUNA raises were approved May 21, 2022. BUT, three months before the LIUNA percentage increases, five of the eight managers received pay increases on February 26, 2022. ranging from $2.40 to $4.48 an hour, making their hourly rates skyrocket.   The explanation for these raises on the action form was BLANK. The highest raise was for Martin with a $9.29 hourly jump in pay within three months. What is more interesting and shows blatant manipulation of the system is in the explanation statement on the action form with the statement: “MOU to LIUNA Local 630 Agreement. $2.50 added to hourly wage BEFORE a 5% multiplier added for new hourly rate.” That means payroll was instructed to add $2.50 per hour before calculating the 5 percent increase.

Below is the spreadsheet with the names, dates, sum of the increases, hourly rate, and who authorized said pay raises. I struggled with whether to include the spreadsheet but decided to include it. Don’t shoot the messenger, blame the County Coordinator and Human Resources Director; they are the ones that failed the citizens and the county employees. They are supposed to supervise and manage our tax dollars. If the proper process and procedures were in place the action forms would never have seen the light of day in a public forum.  Be angry at management, not Spotlight for reporting.

Perhaps it’s time commissioners to clean house, re-evaluate job classifications, do genuine performance evaluations, and look at re-structuring our county government to serve the public, not themselves.

Posted August 25, 2023