Gainesville City Commission formalizes City Manager’s 5% salary cut

BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s Gainesville City Commission meeting, Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker asked that an amendment to the City Manager’s contract be pulled from the consent agenda for discussion and Commissioners offered brief comments on the Israel-Hamas War.
The amendment, which was requested by City Manager Cynthia Curry, reduced her annual salary from $299,000 to $284,050, a 5% reduction, effective October 16, 2023.
Duncan-Walker said she pulled the item from the consent agenda because she “needed some clarity.” She asked Curry for some context, beginning with her salary as Interim City Manager; Curry said it was approximately $260,000. Duncan-Walker noted that Curry’s salary went up to $299,000 when she was hired as the permanent City Manager, then asked, “If we are looking at this from a zero-based budgeting perspective, this is the number that we end up with?”
Curry: “This 5% was my decision.”
Curry said it was unrelated to zero-based budgeting, saying that $299,000 was the salary she had agreed to and that it was approved by the Commission. She added, “I voluntarily placed this item on the agenda today; I voluntarily put the salary reduction in play because as City Manager, knowing what the City is facing, and understanding that we would ultimately have to eliminate the positions that we eliminated–as the Manager, I wanted to take the lead and show that I, too, would participate in that process. This 5% was my decision.”
Duncan-Walker followed up, asking, “Would you consider a larger decrease?” Curry responded, “No, ma’am, I would not.”
Chestnut: Reduction will impact retirement pay
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she had no idea that the 5% reduction was $15,000: “Now, you are not retirement age, but I need to let you know that all of this will impact your final salary.” Curry laughed and said she was, “in fact, into retirement age.” Chestnut continued, “But it will have an impact, and I wanted to speak against it. I think it was fine for one year, but I think if you’re going to continue this practice…” Curry said, “No, ma’am,” and Chestnut said, “Oh, thank you. Because that is not something that I support.”
Chestnut thanked her for taking the reduction, adding, “I think it is not necessary. It is a service to the citizens; it was also, in the long run, a disservice to you, as you get ready to approach retirement.”
Curry said, “I do not disagree. But again, in a leadership role… I felt it was the right thing to do. And so, yes, from a selfish point of view, it did hurt. But from the bigger picture point of view, I was in the position to do it, and I did it.”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman thanked Curry for “stepping up to the plate on this,” and Commissioner Casey Willits also thanked Curry for her leadership.
Duncan-Walker said she was concerned about “the morale of the team here” and the people who had been laid off. She also pointed out that GRU General Manager Tony Cunningham did not take an increase in pay for FY2024: “So while we’re passing out accolades, I don’t think we should forget that.”
Book: “I do think that our salaries at the executive leadership level are too high.”
Commissioner Ed Book thanked Curry “for putting this reduction on the table. I do think that our salaries at the executive leadership level are too high. That’s my opinion… And I think that our market average salaries for our frontline operators are too low.”
Curry replied that Charter Officer salaries are “set by this Commission; we don’t set our own salaries.”
Chestnut said, “I just wanted to add–I believe Tony Cunningham’s salary was and is $303,000. So yes, I am happy that he did not want more, but $303,000 was quite sufficient… Perhaps [the GRU Authority] will deal with [the $300k salary].”
Duncan-Walker: Commission defers to the Mayor on Charter Officer salaries
Duncan-Walker turned to Mayor Harvey Ward and said the Commission gives “a lot of deference to you, My. Mayor, when you go in and you negotiate these salaries. Very rarely have you heard anything from us. And to be honest with you, that is the time to have those conversations, but we have been very gracious, I think, in not really contesting those at that point… I think, as we go forward, perhaps we are more critical in our own processes. I don’t know how we are all going to walk away from this experience that is JLAC in our lives… If there is a desire of a Commissioner or the Commission, obviously, as a whole, to reconsider things in the future, then certainly we need to be mindful about how we approach that.”
Ward countered, “Let me point out that we’ve had a lot of discussion about salaries this year, more so than has happened in past years. So I appreciate your perspective that perhaps everyone has been deferential. That has not been my experience–but okay.” Ward also corrected the previous information that Cunningham’s salary was $303,000: “It’s $307,000. But regardless, that is not a salary that this Board has anything to do with, at this point.”
There was no public comment on the agenda item, so Eastman made a motion to approve the amended employment agreement that formalizes the cut in Curry’s salary. The motion carried 6-1 with Duncan-Walker in dissent.
Commissioners briefly discuss Israel-Hamas War
In the first mention of the Israel-Hamas War on the City Commission dais, Willits said, “The violence in Palestine, in Israel, is something that a lot of our community is talking about and feeling. It is something that is difficult because we didn’t start it, and it goes back more than 75 years; it goes back more than 150 years. But innocent civilians died in Israel, they were attacked by only a terrorist attack, out of the blue. And the response from Israel has definitely had lots of civilians who are innocent die as well. And so that amount of death is felt by people in our community. So I just wanted to say to Gainesville’s community that I pray for peace, I hope for peace and calm heads and real fairness in looking at it.” He said it was important to “be judicious and not act capriciously” when we have uncertain information.
Ward added, “I would encourage folks to reach out and talk to not only folks in the community but very specifically to faith leaders. When I’ve had the opportunity to reach out to faith leaders, they certainly have been very appreciative to your support from elected leaders. And I would strongly encourage that.”
So at the JLAC meeting last week Curry claimed that she had taken a 5% pay cut, but lo and behold she really hadn’t taken a pay cut at all. Instead she continued to collect the full amount until today. I would assume if the issue didn’t come up at the meeting this past Monday and if she hadn’t made such a big deal about taking a paycut, no one would have ever noticed that she was still collecting the full amount.
The article says the amendment was effective Oct. 16, the same day as the JLAC meeting. But not Oct. 1, the first day of the fiscal year…
People who are worthy of near $300,000 salaries don’t make mistakes like that. Just like the outright mis-statements by Harvey Ward.
It was not a mistake, IT WAS A BOLD FACED LIE!
She (Curry) absolutely told JLAC, THIS WEEK that she already took the 5% reduction in pay which apparently equals $15,000. Curry and Ward are bold faced liars, but she follows the lead of her Massa Harvey Ward.
Curry attempted to list cities of comparable size to Gainesville:
Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Jacksonville, Coral Springs, etc.
Jacksonville DOES NOT have a City Manager, because Jacksonville has a strong mayor form of government.
Epic Fail Ms. Curry!
She also lied to JLAC about doing Zero-Based Budgeting. Nothing in her budget presentation had anything remotely related to Zero-Based Budgeting.
Curry is a terrible leaders, who lacks ethics, integrity, morals, and overall competence.
She needs to be removed for cause for the destruction to GPD and the overall organization.
5% is a token amount. I want to see all of the charter officers agree to a minimum 25% shave.
The city manager sits in that stage and blows hot air.
Zero based budgeting my a$$.
With that salary one can’t help but wonder if that’s all that’s being blown around city hall.
And don’t forget Chestnut acting like taking a $15K paycut that close to retirement was such a sacrifice for a woman who bilked her last public sector organization (Broward County) out of $100K and who will still make $284K/year. Wake up. A city in this dire straights should not have people making that much money, especially a thief that does not have the experience to help get us through this. Remember we are the ones paying all those high six figure salaries…
Well, perhaps the city will need to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the near future.
That would give them the opportunity to abrogate these charter officer contracts.
The leadership of this city is in denial.
What an f’ing joke. The city is crumbling and the manager is making $200k++?
With respect to the manager, this is not a sacrifice. $284.000 is about four times the national household income. A $15,000 pay reduction is only half of what a transit employee makes and just a quarter of a police FTE position. This cut doesn’t cover the cost of either, or any other city employee position. I wish that there would have been more conversation around a larger cut. We can’t afford to put one person and their salary before thousands of taxpayers. The majority of whom can’t even afford a $1000 emergency.
“With respect to the manager,” really????
Ok, Fareed…
With respect to this:
* Her keeping Tony Jones (Police Chief #1) long past his expiration date.
* Her making Lonnie Scott (Police Chief #2) the police chief, at the same time of retaining Tony Jones.
* Her paying two Police Chiefs, who she along with staff both called them “Chief” and paid them over $200,000 a year. (You are silent on that)
* Her having an organizational Churn Rate of over 25%
* Her being responsible for the morale and staffing problems at GPD, as the manager she is responsible.
* Her inability to have integrity, ethics, and morals…(Respect you say)
* Her lack of professionalism and decorum with staff and vendors, even cursing people out (Respect you say)
Yet you still want to say with “respect “…..Yea, I do not think so.
Politically parse, or protect folks, but please don’t act like the majority of the public is delusional.
She behaves like that behind the scenes??
Yes Carlos
$300K is already massively excessive and greedy.
What does she do besides ruling all her subjects to do her work and report back to her.
Ms Curry, last year, was granted a huge pay raise.
Retire, get lost and take your big fat pension with you.
The Tallahassee City manager makes around $200,000 a year and their utility company transfers around $50 million a year and is not bankrupt with a 4.0 debt burden. So I guess Gainesville rewards ineptness and bad behavior.
It is good to see other like minded people in the community I have lived in for the last 40 years. It used to be a good community, but, alas, it has changed for the worse. I am looking at selling out and moving to , either the Gilcrest or Levy county, let the dishonest and manipulators have Gainesville.
Chestnut: “Are you sure you want to do this? This is going to affect your retirement.”
Curry: “I lied and told them I did it already, so I have to do it!!”
Tells you everything you need to know about her commitment. She and Chestnut are more concerned about her retirement than her commitment to the job.
Speaks volumes about both of them.
I know this, for half her salary and benefits I could do two to three times a better job and not have to cheat the taxpayers out of it.
She’s just another leech on the community.
Looking at what other city managers make even in large cities, I’d say a 50-75% paycut would be more appropriate.
Government jobs are supposed to be public service jobs, since they are living off the tax dollars of others. The pay is mediocre for these desk workers, but then again they get decent benefits, retirement, and extra holidays.
How in the world can someone working in an admin position at a mid-sized city draw a salary that puts her in the elite top 2% of earners in the entire US?!
Paying someone a high salary just because the previous guy was overpaid is one of the dumbest justifications I have ever heard.
The city leadership needs to be removed by the state and replaced with people who actually understand their role as stewards for the citizen’s tax dollars.
I guess this is Curry’s version of reparations.
Cynthia Williams Curry is worth this exorbitant salary? The salary for any and all of our public servant employees should be based on the local median income. If I were king, I would have every City employee reapply for their position and tell me what they actually do to justify their salary. It infuriates me that my hard-earned tax dollars are squandered.
Found this online. This info was compiled before she got her big pay raise at the beginning of the year:
In 2021, Cynthia Curry made $250,000 by working as a City Manager at the City of Gainesville. Cynthia Curry salary was 61% higher than the average and 70% higher than median City Manager salary in 2021.
Cynthia Curry salary was 386% higher than average City of Gainesville salary and 457% higher than median City of Gainesville salary in 2021.
https://opengovpay.com/fl/cynthia-curry/115829149
What does she have over on Secret Harvey?
Is the $300K base salary or is the fringe benefit rate factored into that number?
Base