Investigate Bean's curious pay raise

Hillsborough County commissioners should order an independent investigation of the apparently unauthorized pay raises Administrator Pat Bean and County Attorney Renee Lee were given in 2007.

Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank or even State Attorney Mark Ober needs to ferret out the truth about mysterious raises that appear to violate county policy.

The raises amounted to about $2,100 a year for both Bean and Lee.

The county's Internal Performance Auditor Jim Barnes discovered the 1 percent raises while conducting a review of executive pay requested by Commissioner Kevin Beckner.

After Barnes highlighted the pay hike that went to Bean and the 10 top county executives, Bean and Lee volunteered to give up the increase. Bean vows to pay all prior payments back.

But that should not settle the matter. Commissioners should take a hard look at how Bean and Lee could bypass their authority.

Bean says the raises were given as part of a financial-incentive award program started by former Administrator Dan Kleman in 1998 that withholds a portion of the budget each year so 1 percent raises can be given to selected employees. Staff would make recommendations, but the administrator would make the final decision.

The incentive program is mentioned in a management compensation audit that may have gone to the board in 2000, but Bean does not know if sitting commissioners were aware of the practice.

With so little oversight, these raises could have been given for arbitrary reasons. Bean would have been wise to jettison - or restructure - the program when she took over as administrator in 2003.

Still, she does have the authority to approve raises for her executive team, and she says the 2007 raises went to leaders who had been responsible for $17 million in savings. So give her a pass on this.

What is more troubling is that the 1 percent raises also were given to Bean and Lee, whose contracts call for the board to approve salary or benefit increases.

Bean says she does not know who recommended her for the reward and swears she "did not ask for the raise." She says Lee was responsible for determining that the program legally could apply to them. A Human Resources official confirms this. Lee says she didn't ask for the raise and doesn't know how it occurred.

Bean now terms her acceptance of the increase "bad judgment." True. So was Lee rendering a legal opinion on a matter that would benefit her.

It is instructive that Environmental Protection Commission Chief Rick Garrity, another executive hired by the commission, was offered the 1 percent raise for his cost-cutting labors. He refused it, correctly recognizing the commission should approve such increases.

Why didn't Bean or Lee?

One thing is clear: Bean's bosses did not approve the raise. And there is enormous potential for abuse if subordinates are allowed to initiate rewards for a superior who has control of their employment.

It is troubling that no one would have even known about Bean's and Lee's pay hikes if Barnes hadn't unearthed it, which shows the usefulness of the internal auditor's position.

Now the county needs an even more rigorous investigation. Commissioner Mark Sharpe plans to request a review, which his fellow commissioners should support.

Bean is a 32-year employee who has done much for Hillsborough. But recent episodes suggest she has lost her perspective, if not her judgment. Commissioners also should be upset about Lee's legal judgment.

Commissioners must determine the truth about the affair and find out how such inept decisions could be made behind their backs.