Archer split over proposed $90,000 City Manager salary

BY JESSE THOMAS FLETCHER

ARCHER, Fla. – Archer commissioners remained divided Thursday over whether the City can afford to make City Manager Donald Barber a full-time employee at a $90,000 salary plus benefits, leaving his employment terms unresolved.

The proposed 2026-27 budget presented at the Aug. 20 workshop included a $90,000 salary for Barber, with the pay and benefits divided among several City funds. 

The Commission postponed Resolution 2026-41 on Aug. 10, moving the proposed full-time contract into the budget discussion. Barber’s current part-time agreement pays him $30,000 and remains in effect through Feb. 9, 2027. The proposed one-year agreement would increase his salary to $90,000, add health insurance and retirement benefits, and provide 20 weeks of severance if the City fires him without cause.

Vice Mayor Iris Bailey said she opposed changing the position so soon after the City hired Barber as a part-time Manager, especially since the City Commission had created the part-time arrangement to save money while addressing its financial problems.

“We came up with the part-time position so that we could save money and get things in order,” Bailey said. “I disagree [with making Barber full-time]. I disagreed from the beginning.”

Bailey noted that Barber is contracted for 20 hours per week, and Deputy City Manager John Martin works 30 hours. “If we’re gonna go to him being full-time and $90,000, then we only need one,” she said. “Right now, I don’t see where we can afford that.”

Mayor Fletcher Hope also opposed the proposed starting salary. “I do not feel… $90,000 plus a 35% benefit package is affordable for Archer and our recovery at this point,” Hope said. He said he believed the starting salary should be $70,000 plus a benefit package, particularly because the City is preparing to outsource planning and code administration work that was previously handled under the City Manager’s office.

Commissioner Karen Fiore defended the $90,000 figure and praised the work Barber and Martin have performed, particularly their efforts to oversee grants and find new revenue. She said reducing the offer could cause the City to lose Barber and interrupt progress on the wastewater project.

“The fact that he’s sticking around for 90 [thousand dollars] is probably pushing it, at this point. He’s probably taken a pay cut,” Fiore said. “I don’t want to lose him over that salary when I’m embarrassed that we’re only offering 90 [thousand dollars].”

Commissioner William Lewandowski said Archer needs full-time management because the wastewater project and its grant agreements create substantial administrative risk. Without that project, he said, he might take a different position. 

The wastewater project will construct approximately 42,500 feet of force main and a master lift station to carry Archer’s wastewater to Newberry’s treatment plant. The City is relying on state grants to fund the project, including a $13 million grant for Archer to purchase wastewater-treatment capacity from Newberry, with $5.66 million subject to strict deadlines and reporting requirements tied to project completion and documentation.

Lewandowski called the current management contracts “problematic.” He said the combined 50 contracted hours may fall short of the time required to run the City and oversee the grants. He has submitted a substantially revised contract to Barber and the City Attorney for consideration.

“We need to have, for the next Commission meeting,… a discussion on the Manager’s contract,” Lewandowski said. He said Commissioners must settle the full-time or part-time question and salary “one way or the other.”

Commissioner Jennifer Rossi did not state a position on Barber’s salary.

The workshop packet showed a $921,425 General Fund budget, with Enterprise Funds totaling $456,749. The City reached the proposed budget through a mixture of spending reductions, staffing changes, and reallocating revenue and expenses among funds.

Budget revisions eliminated a part-time office position and $5,525 in cleaning services, reduced the IT contract allocation by $20,276, and moved $24,000 in water utility-tax revenue into the General Fund. The proposed budget also includes a new $12.50 monthly service charge for commercial solid-waste customers, projected to raise $7,650. The Commission directed staff to retain that charge in the next draft, but it will require formal approval.

The proposed budget restored Commissioner compensation to approximately $500 per month and budgeted $30,600 in Commissioner salaries, but Commissioners directed staff to keep their compensation at $250 per month. They agreed to place $500 into a scholarship fund and direct the remaining savings toward the principal on the City’s loan.

The workshop packet budgeted $50,000 toward principal and $51,600 in interest for the loan. Fiore said the compensation reduction would increase the amount available for principal, bringing total principal-and-interest funding to approximately $120,000.

Two residents offered opposing views on the management question. Ms. Green said the City needs one full-time manager to oversee its grants, while Gene Arnold argued that Archer could not afford the cost while carrying substantial debt.

The Commission is expected to revisit Barber’s contract at its next regular meeting on Sept. 14, when it will also hold the first hearing on the proposed budget and millage rate. The final budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 28.