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County managers keep salary raises

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By MICHAEL D. BATES, Hernando Today

Published: November 27, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - During the tumultuous twin budget hearings held last September, hundreds of residents raised the battle cry: Lower taxes and stop government spending.

One of the areas in which they chided county commissioners was granting government employees an across-the-board 3 percent raise.

Despite taking heat, commissioners voted in the salary hikes, with a recommendation that some of the highest-paid employees forego them and donate the money back to the county.

Commissioner Chris Kingsley requested then-County Administrator Gary Kuhl approach department directors to determine if they would voluntarily refuse their annual salary increases.

The managers' average salary is $95,000, according to the county budget office.

So how many of them took Kingsley and his board's advice and refused their 3-percent-across-the-board raise?

None, according to Hernando County Human Resources Director Barbara Dupre.

The raises went into effect in October and, to date, no manager has approached Dupre about donating the extra money, which amounts to over $2,300 or more a year per manager.
Budget Director George Zoettlein, whose salary shot up to over $97,000 annually after the raise, said the rationale for keeping the raises makes sense when the number of hours worked and the dedication to the job is factored into the equation.

"Most department managers on average work 50 hours a week," he said. "We're all salaried employees so we don't get compensated for that extra time."

Zoettlein said he and his staff averaged more than 60 hours a week during budget preparation time.

For all board employees paid out of the general fund, the raises for 2008 totaled about $350,000, according to Zoettlein.

Of that, about $34,200 represented the salary hikes for the 12 department managers paid out of the general fund. To reach that, Zoettlein used an average wage of $95,000 per manager.

Add in the three other managers, who are paid from nongeneral fund revenue, and the total payout for raises is $42,750, he said.

County Commissioner Diane Rowden said she doesn't answer for the department managers.

Rowden said she will give up her raise this coming year, which the state has computed at 1.96 percent.

"(But) I'm not going to go out there and tell someone else to do the same thing," she said.

Rowden also questioned why the spotlight is on government employees and not on the sheriff's employees, who averaged 5.5 percent raises this year.

Commissioner Dave Russell said he was opposed to 3-percent-across-the-board raises from the start and believed they should have been based on merit.

But now that the managers have the raises, it makes no sense for them to give them up, especially since their work duties may soon increase, he said.

"We're going to be asking these department managers, as we're combining (jobs) and streamlining, to step up and assume more responsibilities in more areas," he said.

For example, Purchasing Director James Gantt will now be taking over the county's embattled fleet management department when Fleet Director Terry Yeager steps down at the end of the year.

"We're going to make them earn their money, Russell said.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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