City commission votes to repeal salary increases; Saco says she will stop working after 20 hours

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In response to an agenda item proposed by Gainesville City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, the city commission voted 5-2 on March 2 to repeal their recent salary increase, ask the legislature for assistance in getting funds from the University of Florida, and ask staff to eliminate duplication of services between General Government and Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU).

Mayor Harvey Ward cautioned the commission to make the “right changes” instead of “the fast thing. Because the fast thing can cause all kinds of wreckage that we didn’t intend.” He said his plan is to go through the annual budget process, and “let’s be clear that we’re not going to fix this today or next week or the week after that. This is an ongoing process” that will end when the Fiscal Year 2024 budget is adopted.

Both City Manager Cynthia Curry and GRU General Manager Tony Cunningham told the commission that they have implemented a strategic hiring freeze, and Curry said she will be implementing a spending freeze. Curry said she has notified all City departments that she expects a “zero-based budget approach,” in which budgets are developed from the ground up instead of adding to the previous year’s budget. In addition, she has a team that will review policies and procedures, City-wide. A commissioner suggested starting the budget discussions on March 23, but Curry said that was too soon; the first discussions on the Fiscal Year 2024 budget will be in May.

Chestnut’s four-part proposal

Chestnut’s recommendation had four parts: 1) that the commission repeal the raise the previous commission passed in December (and this commission confirmed in January); 2) that the mayor send a letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC), requesting assistance in the form of a payment in lieu of taxes from the University of Florida; 3) that the charter officers reduce their budgets and submit those cuts to the city commission by March 23; and 4) that the City Manager and GRU General Manager review duplicative services and try to consolidate them with the assistance of a third party.

Chestnut said the City Manager and GRU General Manager had indicated they’re already working on her third recommendation, and it was brought to her attention that former Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos had previously asked the two charter officers to work together to review duplicative services and areas of consolidation. She made a motion to direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance repealing the recent salary increase for commissioners and authorize the mayor to send a letter requesting financial assistance from the University of Florida. Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker seconded the motion.

Cunningham said GRU’s budget meetings had already started, but since utilities are essential services, “when we look at making significant reductions, we have to make sure we’re maintaining service levels, regulatory requirements, bond requirements, and things of that nature, and so we need the time to do that.” Cunningham added that GRU does zero-based budgeting every year. GRU also has a “focus team” to define the goal they want to achieve: “JLAC–no one has really established what that goal is.” 

Commissioner Ed Book said that he “obviously” supports repealing the salary increase; he proposed repealing the salary increase on January 19, but only Desmon-Walker voted with him. He suggested reporting to JLAC on all the steps the City has taken to address budget issues since the hearing on February 23. 

Book said he hoped the consultant in part four of Chestnut’s motion wasn’t a paid consultant; Curry said that she and Cunningham had already met with GSG, a consultant that already works with the City, but they delayed further work because the Finance staff was working on getting the 2021 financial reports done. 

“I don’t want to spend an enormous amount of money. There are organizations that will work on a contingency basis as well–if they don’t find savings, you don’t owe them anything.” – Mayor Harvey Ward on whether to hire a consultant to identify duplicative services.

Mayor Harvey Ward said he had planned to get back to that effort this year, “and I think that the push from JLAC helps us in that direction… I don’t want to spend an enormous amount of money. There are organizations that will work on a contingency basis as well–if they don’t find savings, you don’t owe them anything.” Based on that, Chestnut added that part back to her motion. She also added Book’s recommendation to send a report to JLAC, describing what they’ve done so far. 

Cunningham said it was unlikely that a consultant could be engaged and complete the work before October, so he said he could only commit to starting the process.

Book suggested scheduling a joint meeting with the local legislative delegation. Ward pointed out that they won’t be available until after the legislative session ends. 

Disagreement on repealing salary increase, freezing travel expenses

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said commissioners “are not in a place right now” where they can ask the staff to tighten their belts while taking a big salary increase. He added, “I don’t think any of my colleagues here would do anything like this, but the last thing we need is someone taking a trip to Israel or something like that?” He suggested freezing out-of-state travel expenses. Eastman also favored speaking directly to UF about a payment in lieu of taxes instead of going through the legislature.

Chestnut said city commissions have asked UF for financial support “probably going back to 1900… and we haven’t been heard. This may not go anywhere, but this is probably the last straw.”

“The prior commission made a vote for the sustainability of these offices in the future… They were thinking–this job is incredibly difficult, period. It’s incredibly difficult if you are not independently wealthy, come from money, have family money, or are married to money.” – Commissioner Reina Saco

Commissioner Reina Saco, who was on personal leave during December when the previous commission voted for the salary increase, said, “I was not here for the initial vote, so I think it’s important that this commission did not vote to give itself anything. The prior commission made a vote for the sustainability of these offices in the future… They were thinking–this job is incredibly difficult, period. It’s incredibly difficult if you are not independently wealthy, come from money, have family money, or are married to money.” She said the previous method of determining salaries made it “exceedingly difficult for the average neighbor to stay in this job” and that she didn’t want future commissioners to be “a bunch of hobbyists or really rich people.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said he had to give up his permanent job in the College of Medicine and move to a part-time position to be able to be a commissioner. He said he lost extensive vacation and sick time by doing that, “and there’s no cashing that out, it’s just gone.” He said he made the decision to cut back to part-time “with the expectation of a salary increase next year” but also said his boss at UF had told him there was no way he could do a full-time job and also serve on the city commission.

He said being a commissioner is not a part-time job, and he had planned to quit his UF job this summer, anticipating the pay increase next January, because “there’s no way I can give it my all when I have to work 20 hours at UF.” He said he would vote no on reversing the salary increase so “people do not have to put their entire life on hold to come serve the people of Gainesville.”

“We should be lobbying for this city. That’s how you get more money… Definitely right now, I can tell you, we put ourselves in a better position to get money for this City by lobbying in Washington, D.C.” – Mayor Ward on travel

Ward disagreed with Eastman’s suggestion to limit out-of-state travel: “There are kinds of travel that we should absolutely limit at this point, if we’re making expeditions to go see how other cities do things, I think that is extremely valuable, but it is the kind of thing that should be restricted. We should be–and we have fallen down on the job, over the last several years– we should be lobbying for this city. That’s how you get more money… Definitely, right now, I can tell you, we put ourselves in a better position to get money for this City by lobbying in Washington, D.C. right now. It is a mistake for us to not do that, and I am not in a position to go out of pocket to do that.” Ward said that is also true of conferences because decision-makers are at those conferences. 

Ward favored delaying the salary increase by a few years instead of repealing the increases and said they should use the letter to JLAC to “make sure they’re aware of our situation–not to say, ‘Lean on our sister institution in our city here to send money,’ but make them absolutely aware of how many acres of our city are not ours, that do not produce, and that we do spend money to support.” Ward said repealing the salary increases would not make a dent in the budget: “It is symbolic.”

Public comment

During public comment, Jo Beaty said that reversing the salary increases would be “a very big show” to the public and to City employees. She said she has watched the job of commissioners turn into a full-time job, and the commissioners did it themselves by creating additional committees and subcommittees. She suggested that commissioners give up their catered meals.

Bobby Mermer agreed that UF should contribute more funds to the City and also supported Saco’s idea of adopting a different method of calculating salaries but not fully repealing the increase. Mermer also suggested that the City ask the legislature to pay for a consultant.

Motion and vote

Book suggested that the City invite representatives from the university to the March 9 General Policy Committee (GPC) meeting.

“Eventually, we are probably going to end up going to the taxpayers for a property [tax] increase. I don’t think we can go to the taxpayers for a property [tax] increase and say to them, ‘We just raised our salaries to $71,000.'” – Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut

Chestnut urged the commissioners to support all three of her recommendations: “Eventually, we are probably going to end up going to the taxpayers for a property [tax] increase. I don’t think we can go to the taxpayers for a property [tax] increase and say to them, ‘We just raised our salaries to $71,000.'” Regarding the number of hours commissioners put in, she said, “This commission has existed as a ‘part-time position’ for as long as we can remember… You make it what you want it to be by the time you put into it, but I don’t think we can put this on the public. We have to set the example… Commissioner Willits, I’m very sorry about the situation, but I have to support it as it is.”

Chestnut said they would not be demanding a payment from UF but asking JLAC for assistance “in trying to get some relief for our taxpayers.”

Ward split the motion into three parts:

1. Ask the attorney to bring back the salary ordinance as it existed before the most recent increase to commissioner salaries (which becomes effective January 1, 2024). This would keep the salaries where they are now and tie future increases to the Consumer Price Index. The vote was 5-2 in favor of the motion, with Saco and Willits in dissent.
2. Authorize the mayor to send a letter to JLAC requesting assistance in discussions with the University of Florida and provide regular updates on their progress. That passed unanimously.
3. Direct the City Manager and the General Manager to review duplicative services and areas of consolidation with the assistance of a third party. That passed unanimously.

Saco: “If I’m going to be paid for 20 hours of work, I will stop working on the 20th hour, and you will be down one commissioner.”

Following the vote, Saco asked staff to bring back information about what it would take to move meetings back to Monday. “If I’m going to be paid for 20 hours of work, I will stop working on the 20th hour, and you will be down one commissioner.” She also asked for information on what it would take to eliminate the two at-large positions on the commission, “which currently cost several hundred thousand dollars in salaries, benefits, support staff, and staff time. If we’re going to lead by example, we should be willing to cut off our entire salaries and our entire positions, as we ask staff to cut positions.”  She said she would put the proposals on the agenda of a future GPC meeting.