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Clerk bestows $1,000 bonuses
By CHASE SQUIRES © St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000 DADE CITY -- Pasco County Clerk of Court Jed Pittman had a grand bonus for his employees Friday. With the end of the fiscal year, Pittman said he had enough money remaining in his budget to give each of the department's 240 employees a $1,000 year-end bonus. Pittman said he is legally allowed to give the bonuses, and said he wanted to reward employees who have been overworked this past year. He said it was impossible to single out only a few workers for special recognition because all of them contributed. He also noted employees in other departments under the general county budget got a $1,500 raise across the board. Pittman said he saw no conflict between having enough surplus to give $240,000 in bonuses and his request earlier this year for a $350,000 budget increase from the Pasco County Commission. "We had a good year," he said. "We pay for ourselves, essentially." Pittman said his office pays its own way by collecting fines and other fees for the court system, returning that money to county coffers. At the end of the year, any unspent money in his budget is returned to the county, so he said he could not use the surplus to supplement his budget for the fiscal year that began Monday. Pittman eventually got all but about $1,000 of the $350,000 increase he requested, according to county officials. On Monday he said that money is for a new branch office proposed for central Pasco. The new office is expected to cut down on driving for people who have to drive from Land O'Lakes to New Port Richey or Dade City. It also will relieve the workload at existing offices. County Commission Chairwoman Pat Mulieri on Monday said she was not aware of Pittman's bonus plan, but did not object to it. "Those people work really hard," she said. "I think he's probably emulating the $1,500 raises we were able to give this year. I think you've got to be fair." Pittman's office, with a $5.9-million budget, maintains court files, including criminal, civil, juvenile and traffic cases and also is responsible for jury management. The office also handles fines and other court costs and records probate files and domestic violence injunctions. Pittman said his crew is overworked and said in the past he has been unable to hire more employees because he has no more office space for them. The addition of a new administration building in Dade City and an office in central Pasco will help ease the workload, he said. The bonuses were a one-time deal, he said. "Morale was getting pretty worn," he said. "They all work very hard."
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