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Bean's rift with commissioners deepens

Tribune file photo by JAY NOLAN (2005)

Pat Bean, center, has served as Hillsborough County administrator since 2004.

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: July 16, 2009

TAMPA - The county administrator's bosses are still mad at her for giving pay raises to her top lieutenants while hundreds of county employees faced layoffs.

County commissioners flayed Pat Bean again Wednesday for not telling them about the raises, which were given late last year. The continued criticism, and the severity of it, indicates that dissatisfaction with Bean's decision runs deep on the commission.

This was the third time this year commissioners have publicly criticized Bean on the issue. Commissioner Mark Sharpe even called for Bean's firing, although he received no immediate support from his colleagues.

"I don't have confidence in the leadership to deal with the issues we face," Sharpe said after the meeting. "It was just a terrible management decision that was made, just awful timing."

Commissioner Rose Ferlita initiated Wednesday's bash session, accusing Bean of circumventing civil service policies when she raised the salaries of six deputies by 12 percent to 17 percent. Bean told commissioners late last year she was reorganizing her top management structure but did not mention the pay increases on paper or in person, Ferlita said.

"Unless I missed it, I don't know, Pat, when all that information was provided," Ferlita said.

Other commissioners agreed that the news of the pay raises, which they learned about six months after the fact, came as an unpleasant surprise.

"I was totally blindsided," said Commissioner Kevin White.

Bean said she raised the deputies' salaries because they were being promoted and were assuming increased responsibilities. The raises were within a pay range approved by the commission before Ferlita was elected, Bean said.

"I cannot believe, frankly, that sometime in my conversations with commissioners, if not in writing, I didn't tell them that," Bean said.

Under the county charter, the commission cannot order the county administrator to rescind the pay raises, but Ferlita asked Bean to do it anyway.

"I want to hold her accountable," Ferlita said after the meeting. "Our first issue is to point out to the county administrator that what she did was not exercising leadership and good judgment."

Commissioners are to revisit the issue today at an afternoon budget workshop. Bean told them she will try to pull together paperwork to show she acted within appropriate civil service and county charter guidelines.

Bean said she would not apologize to the commission unless records show she violated the rules.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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