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Let the money match the time
© St. Petersburg Times, The St. Petersburg City Council, having done a crackerjack job of running the city, on Thursday began working up a little justification toward giving itself a raise, not to mention pension benefits. By "raise," we are talking about something a little bigger than the sneaky, automatic raise the council has given itself annually since 1993. The eight council members, whose posts are part time, now are paid $23,337 a year. By "pension," we are talking about a new, extra payment, equal to 11 percent of salary, paid by the city into tax-deferred savings accounts. Council members would be vested right away. Also, they want a higher expense allowance, now $150 a month. The two council members who were hottest on a raise and more benefits at Thursday's committee meeting were among the newest, James Bennett and Earnest Williams. They were sort of the Mutt and Jeff of the enterprise. Bennett kept saying, whenever the conversation strayed: "Let's talk dollars!" or "How about some numbers?" Williams kept saying: "I really hate to talk about numbers." What started all this was that the mayor needs a raise. So the mayor's staff brought up the topic, and cannily included the City Council "to be fair." The staff put out a chart showing that St. Petersburg pays its mayor and City Council less than Tampa, Orlando or Jacksonville. (You might notice that Miami is not on the chart. I checked. They pay less than St. Petersburg.) Anyway, the mayor of St. Petersburg has made a flat $100,000 a year since the city switched to a "strong mayor" form of government in 1993. No raises, no retirement benefits. The mayor is the full-time chief executive of the city, which is a pretty big enterprise, with 3,000 employees and a $450-million budget. So you can at least make a reasonable case for more. But the City Council is a part-time job. It is made up of eight citizens who sought the privilege. Instead of talking about why they make more than $23,000 and deserve pensions, you could just as easily ask why they are paid anything at all, except maybe gas money. Williams argued that a higher salary would allow more people the flexibility of holding public office. That is perfectly true. In fact, a higher salary would allow all of us more flexibility to do as we chose. Either being on the City Council is a full-time job, and should be treated that way, or it isn't. Clearly, from the tone of Thursday's conversation, the committee members consider themselves "employees" and entitled to a great deal. Only Bill Foster objected, pointing out the obvious fact that they cannot be fired. It's not like they're garbage collectors, or firefighters, or police out there at risk. Williams took umbrage at such a comparison. Why, the City Council bears the burden of providing "legislative direction for the entire city." Bennett said: "I don't see that we're treading on anybody's toes to have benefits like a pension, like any other employee of the city." A little later, he tried again: "How about some numbers? I think we can all agree on the pension. That's a good idea." Bennett got specific. Give the mayor $110,000 a year, council members $25,000 a year, with pension benefits and cost-of-living raises for everybody, and an extra $100 a month in expenses. But Williams did not want to be pinned down. Did he mention he hates to talk numbers? Bennett pressed. "Well, I haven't thought much about it," Williams allowed. "But I think the council should be ... a $30,000 job." They ended up voting 2-1 in favor of asking the full council merely for "enhanced" salary and benefits for both the mayor and council. So now the idea goes to the full City Council, where, no doubt, they will hate to talk about numbers, except maybe for James Bennett. - You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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Times columns today Robert Trigaux Jan Glidewell John Romano Howard Troxler Ernest Hooper From the Times Metro desk Howard Troxler |
