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Tampa mayor gets a raise

By JANET ZINK
Published July 27, 2006

TAMPA — Mayor Pam Iorio is getting a $15,000 raise. The increase, which goes into effect in April, bumps the mayor’s salary up to $150,000 a year.

City Council members approved the raise Thursday on a 6-1 vote. Council member Shawn Harrison said it makes sense for the mayor of Tampa to earn a wage more in line with peers in such cities as St. Petersburg and Orlando. Mayor salaries in those cities are $150,000 and $147,000 respectively.

“It’s just a nod to where the city sits,” Harrison said. “It’s a recognition of the job and what it entails.”

Rose Ferlita cast the lone dissenting vote.

Ferlita said her opposition to the raise had nothing to do with whether or not Iorio is doing a good job or what the pay should be for any mayor of Tampa.

It’s a timing issue, Ferlita said.

“We are in the middle of a compensation study that has not been completed,” Ferlita said, referring to an analysis of pay for rank-and-file employees that should be finished in October.

The city needs to make sure that hourly-wage employees are being paid fairly before approving a big pay hike for the mayor, she said.

Ferlita said she heard from more than a dozen employees who were unhappy with the idea of the mayor getting a raise.

Anthony Sardinas, who works as an automotive operator in the parks and recreation department, told the council the mayor shouldn’t get a raise less than a year after Iorio’s administration reduced potential merit raises for employees.

“This proposal is vulgar and down right wrong,” he said.

Chief of staff Darrell Smith responded that although merit raises were cut, the mayor has increased retirement benefits for employees.

The council also voted to increase the mayor’s salary up to 3 percent every year in the future.

Human resources director Kimberly Crum said that change will eliminate the need for huge jumps in the mayor’s pay every eight years, which has been the case in the past.

The Tampa mayor’s salary increased in 1991 from $59,535 to $110,000 — an 85 percent increase. In 1999, it increased to $135,000 —a 23 percent raise.

Council member Mary Alvarez pointed out that in 1998, the council voted to increase the mayor’s salary every year by up to 3 percent, but for some reason that never made it into the final resolution.

“We wouldn’t be having this discussion at this time if that hadn’t happened,” Alvarez said.

Council members are slated for a 30 percent raise this spring, increasing their pay from about $30,000 a year to $40,000.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.

[Last modified July 27, 2006, 16:50:17]