City commissioners vote 3-2 to let voters decide if they deserve a $45,000 raise

Tallahassee city commissioners voted to proceed with a charter amendment that would allow voters to decide if they deserve a $45,000 raise.

During their meeting on Wednesday, city commissioners voted 3-2 to place a charter amendment on November ballots that if approved would double their salaries to the same amount made by their counterparts on the Leon County Commission.

Under the current charter, city commissioners earn half the salary of county commissioners, with the exception of the mayor, who earns the same amount. County commissioners, whose salary is set by state formula, and the mayor earn about $90,000 a year; city commissioners make about $45,000.

City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox made the motion to put the question on ballots. She said she was working another job when she got elected in 2018 but “wasn’t able to do that and represent the citizens of Tallahassee appropriately.”

“If we intend for ... future City Commissions to have people who can afford to do this — not wealthy people, not retired people or people who really love this city and want to move forward — we must do something about the compensation,” Williams-Cox said.

City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and Mayor John Dailey voted in favor of the motion, though they both said they didn’t know if they’d personally support it at the ballot box. Dailey said the measure had been “properly studied” by the Charter Review Committee, which recommended a pay increase.

“What is brought before us today is whether to put this on the ballot to allow the citizens to vote,” Dailey said. “This is one of the few opportunities of direct democracy that our government has.”

City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter voted no. Matlow said the city “can’t be trusted” to make sure firefighters, who are locked in protracted contract negotiations with the city, are paid fairly. And he noted that the city, in a budget workshop earlier in the day, was projecting a $3.8 million deficit for the 2025 fiscal year.

“We have to do better,” Matlow said. “It’s not the time to ask for more money. I’m open to that conversation in the future if the community (says) that’s what we need to get quality representation, but I haven’t heard that at this time.”

Richardson, who called Matlow’s comments “disingenuous,” said a new firefighter contract was in the hands of a special magistrate and that the issue would be dealt with before the charter referendum in the fall. He said he doesn’t need the extra pay but that future commission hopefuls might.

“There may be others who would want to serve — and I’ve talked to some — but they couldn’t live off the salary that we’re paying compared to the $90,000 a year that a county commissioner and the mayor is paid,” Richardson said.

City Commissioners come up with their own pay plan

The Charter Review Committee, a 10-person board appointed by the commission, debated the pay question for weeks before coming up with a plan to increase their salaries.

Under the CRC proposal, a committee would have studied the pay question before commissioners decided themselves on an amount, which would have been set in ordinance. City commissioners debated Wednesday that but ultimately came up with their own proposal, which would continue to tie their salaries to county commissioner pay.

Commissioners change position from 2022

The vote was something of a turnabout for Matlow, Dailey and Richardson.

In February 2022, Matlow proposed a ballot measure to bring City Commission salaries up to that of their Leon County Commission colleagues. He and Williams-Cox, along with then-Commissioner Elaine Bryant supported the measure at the time. Dailey and Richardson were opposed. Bryant also served on the Charter Review Committee and voted in favor of a pay raise.

In a series of tweets after the vote, Matlow said increasing pay for city commissioners could deter ethical problems like those in recent years — a seeming reference to disgraced City Commissioner Scott Maddox, who pleaded guilty to federal public corruption charges linked to his day job.

“It would be appropriate to check in with the voters and say, ‘the city and county do similar ... work: Should their salaries be the same?’” Matlow said. “This is one of the things we do in everyday business.”

Dailey said at the time he was not interested in amending the charter piecemeal and was specifically against using a ballot measure to address salaries.

“I personally do not feel comfortable doing issue-specific charter amendments,” Dailey said. “Government is not run like a business.”

The measure, however, didn't make it to the 2022 ballot.

City commissioners OK three other charter amendments for 2024 ballots

Last year, city commissioners voted 3-2 to proceed with a charter review, the city’s first in 15 years, narrowly focused on four issues, including their salaries.

The other issues were whether to increase the size of the commission beyond its five members, whether to move city elections from August to November for races with only two candidates and whether to require periodic reviews of the charter, something not in the city’s constitution now.

Following recommendations from the CRC, city commissioners voted unanimously to keep the commission at five members and to move two-person races to the fall. They also voted 5-0 to conduct charter reviews every 10 years — the CRC had recommended every eight years — with a new Charter Review Committee convening in 2033.

City commissioners debated at length two other ethics-related proposals that the CRC unanimously approved late in the process at the behest of one of its members, Ernie Paine, who previously served on the Ethics Board.

They voted 5-0 to give the Ethics Board authority to investigate complaints involving city commissioners while serving on outside boards, including Blueprint and the Community Redevelopment Agency.

Commissioners decided to put off final action on a proposal to give the Ethics Board oversight of whistleblower complaints involving city commissioners, the Inspector General’s office and their staffs. Right now, the Inspector General's Office handles whistleblower complaints, though it can’t investigate itself or commissioners, who supervise the inspector general. Commissioners will revisit that proposal during their next meeting April 24.

Contact Jeff Burlew at [email protected] or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Should Tallahassee City Commissioners get a 100% pay increase?