'Snowball' syndrome sparks pay raise discussions for Martin County administrator, attorney

As hot as it’s been lately, the good folks who work at the Martin County Administrative Center have been dealing with a serious snowball effect.

It began a few weeks ago, when the Martin County Commission agreed to boost firefighters’ salaries by 12%.

Next came Sheriff William Snyder, who convinced the commission to give 12% raises to his employees.

Then last week, the county’s human resources department presented a proposal to increase the salaries of County Administrator Don Donaldson and County Attorney Sarah Woods by … 12%.

It reminded me of that time in 2004 when talk show host Oprah Winfrey made a big splash by giving everyone in her studio audience a free car. ("You get a 12% raise! And you get a 12% raise! And you get a 12% raise!")

OK, the HR folks (who report to Donaldson, by the way) said their proposal wasn't directly tied to what the cops or firefighters will be getting when the new fiscal year begins.

Instead, their recommendation was based on what other top administrators in the region have been making. Or at least some of them.

Indian River County is very similar to Martin County in terms of population size and demographics. But the leaders there make relatively paltry sums of money.

Indian River County Administrator John Titkanich makes $205,000 annually, and Indian River County Attorney Bill DeBraal makes $194,000 annually. Those amounts may seem fairly generous, but both officials are making less than Donaldson and Woods, who get $228,888 and $218,651.30, respectively.

St. Lucie County Administrator George Landry, who oversees a county government in a community with more than twice Martin County's population, makes $211,000 per year. St. Lucie County Attorney Dan McIntyre makes $243,214.40 per year.

Yet Assistant Martin County Administrator Matthew Graham, who was leading the discussion on behalf of the HR team, pointed out to commissioners that other top officials in Port St. Lucie and Palm Beach County are making more money than Donaldson and Woods.

For example, according to county records, Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker makes $412,345.44 per year and Palm Beach County Attorney Lori Coffman makes $266,697.60 per year.

Bear in mind, Palm Beach County is roughly nine times larger than Martin County.

Even so, Graham made the case Martin County had to offer competitive salaries in order to attract and retain the best employees.

This argument would be a lot more compelling if Martin County was in the regular practice of conducting national searches to fill top administrative positions.

Remember, though, when former Martin County Administrator Taryn Kryzda announced plans to retire last year, the commission skipped a formal search and named Donaldson, Kryzda's former deputy administrator, as her replacement.

It seems like at least some in Martin County government would like to have it both ways, with a system geared toward promoting internal candidates over outsiders, but raises based on the idea salaries need to be competitive to attract external candidates.

Incidentally, comparing salaries with Palm Beach County was the justification given for the firefighters' raises, which begat the sheriff's deputies' raises, which arguably begat the raise request for Donaldson and Woods.

It's easy to see how that line of thinking could get out of hand.

Palm Beach County officials can say they need higher pay to keep up with their counterparts in Broward County, who need higher pay to keep up with their counterparts in Dade County, who probably need ever-increasing amounts of money to lure the best and brightest employees from places like Los Angeles and New York City.

It's hard to stop a snowball when it starts rolling in that direction.

Mercifully for local taxpayers, a couple of commissioners got out their snowblowers.

"Does everybody get a 12% raise?" Commissioner Sarah Heard asked. "We don't have that kind of money."

Commissioner Stacey Hetherington noted Kryzda got a substantial pay boost the year before she retired for the sake of bringing her salary in line with what peers were making.

"I feel like we just had this discussion in 2021," Hetherington said. "We can't afford it, in this particular budget."

At that point, a couple of the commissioners said they felt uncomfortable discussing public salaries at a public meeting. The commission agreed to delay the discussion, allowing individual commissioners time to confer with staff and perhaps come up with some more politically palatable counterproposal.

That's concerning because Florida's Sunshine Law doesn't allow public officials to use intermediaries, including government staff members, to make end runs around the legal requirement that they conduct their business in open meetings. I'm a little worried that the back end of this discussion will happen ― or possibly already has happened ― away from the public's view.

In any case, it seems odd to bring up proposed salary increases outside of a formal evaluation process. Donaldson and Woods should get regular performance reviews. That's when any discussion of salary increases ought to occur, with the public's knowledge and input.

Granting out-of-the-blue requests could trigger an avalanche that will leave local taxpayers buried in its wake.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Taxpayers lose if government leaders use snowball approach to raises