West Palm Beach commissioners, mayor in line for massive pay raises

West Palm Beach City Commission members are expected to decide this month whether to sharply increase their pay and that of the mayor.

On Monday night, commissioners gave preliminary approval to a recommendation from the city staff that their pay be increased by just under 32% to $46,112 per year from their current pay of $35,000. The mayor's annual pay would also rise by about 32%, to $197,625 from its current $150,000.

The raises would be the first for commissioners and the mayor since 2016, when commissioners got a 16.6% raise and the mayor got a 20% pay hike. During the past eight years, mayoral administration budgets have called for and commissioners have voted in favor of big raises for city employees.

Still, the city's elected officials now face the prospect of raising their own pay at a time when housing costs and inflation are biting household budgets.

With James term-limited, some commissioners are contemplating a run to succeed him, and that could factor into how they vote when the topic comes up for final consideration May 28. The raises would go into effect on the next pay period after final approval.

"Obviously, this is not a comfortable conversation for any of us on the dais to talk about increasing the salary of those of us who sit here, though I don't think it's inappropriate," James said. "We have looked after our residents. We have looked out for our employees."

Commissioner Shalonda Warren noted that commissioners are only contemplating a pay increase after city residents got property tax rate cuts and after employees got raises. She likened the City Commission's approach to that of a parent in a household where money is tight, which, growing up, was her own personal experience.

"I remember that my mother ate last," she said. "She made sure that everyone in the household had all the things that were needed to be successful."

How does West Palm Beach commission pay rank with comparable cities?

City Administrator Faye Johnson made an extensive presentation on the finances of the proposed pay increases.

The goal, she said, is to put elected official pay in West Palm Beach back on par with the compensation of counterparts in Orlando, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville. Like West Palm Beach, each of those cities has a "strong mayor" form of government, where the mayor is the city's chief executive and hires administration staff who oversee the day-to-day operation.

The pay of elected officials in Orlando, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville has risen from 24% to 42% since 2016, Johnson said.

"We are significantly lagging in terms of meeting the goal to stay on par with those municipalities," she said.

Commissioners' jobs are, technically, part-time. In reality, the jobs are time-consuming and can be mentally draining. Preparation and review for meetings take hours, as do the meetings themselves. And then there are the public gatherings where their attendance is expected.

All of those factors are also true for the mayor, though his job is full-time, as is reflected in its much larger salary.

"We all up here on this dais work very hard," James said. "There are people who would say, if we gave ourselves a dollar raise, we don't deserve it. I believe that we deserve at least to be shielded from the impact of inflation over the last eight years."

Where would the money for pay raises come from?

Johnson emphasized that money for the pay raises would not be pulled from property tax revenue. Instead, she said, it would come from $719,500 in additional shared state revenue the city learned it would receive near the end of last year's budget process.

In crafting the budget, Johnson said she put $365,000 of that $719,500 into the city's contingency fund and set aside another $192,000 for pay and benefits for a chief marketing officer, a position James wanted to create and fill.

That left $162,500 for raises for commissioners and the mayor, something that could only be done by changing city ordinance. The 32% raises would take $103,140 of that $162,500.

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An additional $719,500 in shared state revenue is not an annual certainty, meaning it's unlikely to be the permanent source of funding for the pay increases.

The Palm Beach Post received a tip during budget discussions last year that the city was contemplating pay increases for elected officials and asked in an Aug. 31 email to Diane Papadakos, the city's director of communications, if "the proposed budget includes increases are for the commission and the mayor?"

Papadakos' responded, "I believe that the current budget only includes salary increases for staff, not elected officials."

Johnson said she should have been reviewing the pay of elected officials each year, as the charter directs. Instead, she said, she and her staff focused on residents and employees in crafting a balanced budget.

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Warren said she appreciated that approach, though Commissioner Christy Fox lamented the prospect of having to vote for a large pay increase instead of having received the far more modest cost-of-living increases given to staff over the last eight years.

Fox said she will look to hear from constituents now that the pay package has gotten preliminary approval.

That drew a response from James, who said he hoped she wouldn't conduct a poll on the topic.

"Some decisions just have to be made on data and not on public opinion," he said.

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Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach commissioners, mayor contemplate big pay raises