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Give fire chief 7% raise, one boss urges
By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
LEALMAN -- Fire Commission chairman Mike Brophy has proposed giving the chief a 7 percent raise, retroactive to Oct. 1. A salary hike of about $4,751 a year would increase Rick Graham's annual salary to about $72,621. Fire commissioners likely will vote on the pay raise at their Jan. 20 meeting. Brophy's suggestion, made during a workshop meeting, was greeted with silence by other commission members. Commissioner Bill Adams said after the meeting that he had been too stunned to comment: "I was dumbfounded when he announced that. That's why I didn't say anything." Adams said he had already told Graham that he should get no more than a 3 percent raise -- or the minimum raise the chief can get under the 10-year contract the commission gave him last year. Graham is doing a great job, Adams said, but most Lealman residents will not get that high a salary jump. And neighbors on Social Security will receive only 1.4 percent more than last year, the smallest increase in their checks in four years, or about $13 more a month for the typical retiree. An increase in Medicare costs will consume about a third of that increase. "I didn't feel that he should get more than his constituents," Adams said. Brophy said during the meeting that he made his decision after assessing board members' evaluations of the chief's performance, but not all commissioners had turned them in. Adams said he hadn't submitted an evaluation; neither did new Commissioner John Frank. That left evaluations written by Commissioners Brophy, Linda Campbell and Rebecca Harriman and one by Kathleen Litton, who submitted one before she left office after the November election. Brophy said Monday he could not give copies of the job evaluations to a reporter because he had taken the originals home to work on them and had not brought them back. Brophy said he'd return them Tuesday morning, but they were not available until later in the day, after Neighborhood Times' deadline. Brophy's removal of original public records from Fire Station 18, where they are supposed to remain, raises major concerns, said Penelope Bryan, a St. Petersburg attorney who represents the Times in public records and First Amendment issues. "That's really not consistent with the public's rights," Bryan said. "They have put themselves in a very bad position. ... The whole intent (of the public records law) is to make sure the records are available to the public on demand. ... This official's decision to store public records at home raises legitimate questions about the integrity of the records." Bryan asked, "Is the public supposed to go knocking at his door if they want these records? Should we publish his address for the public benefit? That's just grossly irresponsible." If Graham does get the 7 percent raise, he'll be at the high end of the scale for raises in the Lealman Fire Department. His assistant, Deputy Chief David Brown, got a 7 percent raise. Other chiefs in the department received raises of 5 or 6 percent. The firefighter/paramedics received a 5 percent raise and the firefighter/EMTs (emergency medical technicians) received 4 percent. Pinellas Park gave its fire chief, Ken Cramer, a 2.5 percent increase on Oct. 1. If his evaluation is satisfactory, he'll get another 2.5 percent. Cramer currently earns about $94,000 a year, substantially more than Graham. But Cramer has been Pinellas Park's fire chief for more than 24 years. Cramer oversees four stations with 97 employees and manages a budget of about $6.4-million. Seminole fire Chief Dan Graves' current salary of about $81,200 includes a 3 percent cost-of-living raise. If Graves receives a satisfactory evaluation, he'll get another 2.5 percent increase. Graves has been the Seminole chief since 2000, rising through the ranks. He oversees four stations and 90 employees and administers a $7.4-million budget. Graham, like Graves, has been chief since 2000. He oversees two stations, 50 employees and a $4.9-million budget.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
