Less than 24 hours after a budget workshop where city officials told the city commissioners that “approximately 47 positions will be reduced through existing vacancies, retirements, and in certain cases, layoffs”,  38 city workers were told they would be terminated. Based on these numbers, layoffs make up 80% of the reduction.

The City of Tallahassee was facing an approximate $4.5 million budget deficit for FY 2018.

Documents provided to TR show that of the 38 workers terminated, 8 were women and 30 were men. Also, 23 were white and 15 were black.

The documents provided to can be seen here.

The report will be updated as more information becomes available.

The groups involved in the poll included Florida TaxWatch, the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates (NEBA), the Budget Hawks and Citizens for Responsible Spending (CRS).

In a press conference held on Monday at the Florida Press Center, two leaders of the groups explained the findings.

“Tallahassee is a great city but to continue growing and providing opportunities for everyone to pursue their dreams, there must be a balance between what the government wants and how much people can afford to pay,” said Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch.

“This poll is evidence that Tallahassee residents demand relief and demand to be heard,” said Barney Bishop, president of NEBA and founder of CRS.

The results show that 57% of poll respondents support splitting the $5 million in savings identified by City of Tallahassee staff between providing property tax relief and infrastructure spending. Also, 60% support property tax relief over the elimination of the business tax which was recently requested by the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce.

On the executive pay raises that hit the news last week, only 17% of respondents felt the raises were deserved.

The results also show the community is less concerned with the pay levels for public safety officials and the 2% raise proposed for city employees. Over 65% of the respondents voiced support for the current salary levels of police officers, firefighters and this year’s proposed 2% raise.

Bishop commented that he had misread the sentiment of the public on the 2% employee raises and encouraged City Commissioners to adopt spending priorities that are responsive to both City employees and the property tax payer.

Other results found that 51% of the respondents believe the City of Tallahassee is on the right track.

Surprisingly, the numbers reported in the study do not support the majority of the pay raises.

This report addresses only the Assistant City Manager (ACM) position. Future reports will address other positions.

Last week TR broke the story on the executive level pay raises doled out by City Manager Rick Fernandez, which in some cases exceeded $40,000 per employee.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported that, “The salaries started off as recommendations from the city’s Human Resources and Workforce Development department, which conducted a market rate study ordered by Fernandez. City staff studied government and utility salaries in cities like West Palm Beach, Gainesville and Lakeland, among others. They also studied salaries at public utilities.”

Commissioner Gil Ziffer told the Democrat that “When Mr. Fernandez first presented the increases a few months ago, he was very clear the salaries in question were comparable to counterparts in similar-sized city governments around the state. I trust his judgment.”

What does the City’s “market rate study” reveal”?

Assistant City Managers

It is important to note that the City’s “market rate study” does not take into account the impact of experience on the reported salaries. For example, the salaries of the two ACM’s in Gainesville are between $135,000 and $145,000. However, TR learned that both ACM’s have been in the position for eight years. All of the City of Tallahassee ACM’s are new to the position.

Also, the “market rate study” does not take into account the impact of positions being publicly advertised. For example, Lakeland currently has an open ACM position that was advertised and reports indicate that approximately 100 applications were received for consideration. Lakeland pays their ACM’s like Gainesville, between $135,ooo and $145,000. None of the City of Tallahassee ACM positions were advertised.

Now the numbers.

City Manager Rick Fernandez promoted and gave raises to three ACM’s. Each of the ACM’s is now making $175,000. This means that the City of Tallahassee is paying $525,000 for three ACM’s with an average salary of $175,000.

The first two columns in the table below is based on information from the City’s “market rate study”. The last two columns, “ACM Positions” and “Total ACM Salary” were added by TR after reviewing organization charts and talking to officials in the comparable cities.

The average salaries of the comparable group of cities in the pay study is $152,783. The average of the Tallahassee ACM’s is $175,000, or 14.5% higher than the average of the comparable group.

Note that the addition of West Palm Beach has a substantial impact on the comparable group average, given the high salary? Also, why was Lakeland not included? Unlike West Palm Beach, Lakeland runs an electric utility and has the same political structure as the City of Tallahassee.

Even with West Palm Beach in the comparable group, the “market rate study” indicates the recent raises for the ACM positions are not comparable with average salaries of ACM’s in the comparable group.

What about the claim that the ACM’s have accepted more responsibilities and therefore deserve the higher salaries?

Research by TR found that none of the comparable cities have more than two ACM’s. The City of Tallahassee has three. These numbers are reflected in the “ACM Positions” column.

The third column provides the total annual salary paid to ACM’s. The comparable group averages total pay for ACM’s equal to $276,781. The City of Tallahassee pays $525,000. That is 89.9% higher than the comparable group.

These findings raise questions about City Manager Rick Fernendez’s claim  that all of the officials have taken on “higher-level” responsibilities as a result of the reorganization. Are other cities in the comparable group doing more with less managers? Why does Tallahassee need three ACM’s”?

Our next report will look at the other positions and how they compare to salaries in comparable cities.

Cynthia Barber, who was being paid $125,084 in January, is now making $174,999.99 as an assistant city manger. That is a $49,916 increase, which equals a 39.9% change. Ms. Barber is the assistant city manager over safety and neighborhoods.

Raoul Lavin, who was being paid $128,908 in January, is now making $174,999.99 as an assistant city manger. That is a $46,092 increase, which equals a 35.8% change. Mr. Lavin is the assistant city manager over financial management, accounting and procurement.

TR has also learned that the positions currently occupied by Mr. Lavin and Ms. Barber were not advertised.

This new information comes amid a contentious budget debate between the City of Tallahassee and several citizen groups that have questioned the City’s spending priorities.

Commercial real estate developer and founding Budget Hawk Russell Price said, “Eliminating approximately $2,000,000 in business fees would be a financial shot in the arm for businesses that are still struggling to recover from the national recession.”

Former chamber of commerce chairman and Budget Hawk Brent Pichard added, “We are elated that the chamber has joined the movement for tax relief. The chamber brings tremendous political influence to help convince local government to make Tallahassee a more pro-business city.”

This does not mean the Budget Hawks’ work is done.

“Budget Hawks will continue fighting for a repeal of last year’s 13.5% city property tax hike and for more transparency in the city budget debate. Cutting property taxes will benefit all taxpayers, including young families and the elderly on fixed income. A repeal of the business tax will be a good down payment in the effort to return tax dollars back to taxpayers’ pockets,” former mayor and Budget Hawk Penny Herman promised.

The Budget Hawks and two other groups, Citizens for Responsible Spending, and the Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates held a budget workshop earlier this month and presented an alternative budget to the spending priorities proposed by the City of Tallahassee.

Our report on that workshop can be read here.

This finding comes amid a request by citizens groups to roll back the 13% property tax increase passed last year.

The issue was first publicly addressed by FSU Professor Shawn Kantor who spoke at a City Commission meeting on April 27th. Professor Kantor presented a chart that showed a steep increase in General Spending over the last six years when adjusting for City population growth.

However, during the inaugural budget workshop, a chart presented to Commissioners by City staffer Robert Wigen showed spending climbing at the same rate as the City’s population.

This was not consistent with actual spending and population data.

See chart below.

In addition, Mr Wigen reinforced the visual representation by telling the  City Commissioners that after 2010 spending increased  “with a slight uptick but still below the population levels.”

Take a look and listen:

Given the fact that growth in the General Fund when compared to population is a pretty simple fact to verify, how did City staff create a chart that shows population growing at the same rate as the General Fund expenditures?

Why does a visual representation of population growth and General Fund not show what simple calculations do – that General Fund expenditures have increased at three times the rate of population?

This is where the distortion comes in and here is how it happened.

In the preparation of the chart, the City used different scales on the chart for city population and the General Fund expenditures. This distorted the relationship between the growth rate in population and expenditures.

Experts told TR that “statistical graphs with two vertical axes are particularly prone to manipulation and distortion: the impression of a reader will be very heavily influenced by what intervals are used and how the lines or bars are placed against each other.”

For example, the left part of the City chart includes 40% of the range from 0 to 150,000 while the right side of the chart shows approximately 14% of the range from 0 to 195,000. This set-up magnifies population growth and minimizes the growth in the General Fund.

By doing this, the population looks like it is rising with General Fund spending from 2010-2015 even though a simple calculation reveals something different.

What would a chart look like that used the same scale for population and the General Fund expenditures?

Listed below is a chart created using the same data , except using the same scale for population and General Fund spending.

Unlike the City created chart, the chart above shows that spending growth began to slowly outpace population growth after 2010 . The most significant increases have occurred in the last three years.

The City’s own data shows that the per person spending by the City in 2015 and 2016 is as high as the per person spending by the City just before the Great Recession in 2005.

The City staff has yet to provide this information to the City Commissioners. The next budget workshop is May 11th.

TR will continue to investigate the impact of this finding on the City’s budget decisions.