Highest Paid City Officials

[CityLife]

Quick Stephen, please tell me the salaries of the head attorney for Charlotte, Tampa, Nashville, etc? How about their Public Works Director and so on....

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Let's back up a second.  You started with:

...Or keeping anyone with any talent/knowledge away from the private sector.

as a comment meant to justify the pay they're receiving.  Right?

Well, in the private sector, if you don't perform up to your billing, you're typically let go and replaced.  Is that the case with city employees?  Has the mayor done the job he said he would?  Has Laquadaria (sic) performed to her level of pay?  Why should we, the board, both literally and figuratively, be burdened with this seemingly incompetence for 4 years at a click. 

I'm neither justifying or arguing against their pay levels.  What I'm tired of hearing is the comparison with 'private sector' v/s 'public sector'.  What ever happened to civic duty?  People want to bitch about budgets, pensions and medical coverage, but the most basic answer that I can offer is that the city government is operating exactly like a private company with zero accountability...  well, not zero, but after 4 years or 8 years or whatever, it's not their problem anymore and they can move on. 

[CityLife]

140 inches a year. 72 Argentine Peso's per bushel. Ask her to watch Amelie at your place.....

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

140 inches a year. 72 Argentine Peso's per bushel. Ask her to watch Amelie at your place.....

Hahahahaha.....

Google

Magic Eight Ball

Experience? 

Nice.

[thelakelander]

LMAO!

[JayBird]

140 inches a year. 72 Argentine Peso's per bushel. Ask her to watch Amelie at your place.....

Kudos, that was a good one. Well played gentleman, well played.

[CityLife]

Let's back up a second.  You started with:

...Or keeping anyone with any talent/knowledge away from the private sector.

as a comment meant to justify the pay they're receiving.  Right?

Well, in the private sector, if you don't perform up to your billing, you're typically let go and replaced.  Is that the case with city employees?  Has the mayor done the job he said he would?  Has Laquadaria (sic) performed to her level of pay?  Why should we, the board, both literally and figuratively, be burdened with this seemingly incompetence for 4 years at a click. 

I'm neither justifying or arguing against their pay levels.  What I'm tired of hearing is the comparison with 'private sector' v/s 'public sector'.  What ever happened to civic duty?  People want to bitch about budgets, pensions and medical coverage, but the most basic answer that I can offer is that the city government is operating exactly like a private company with zero accountability...  well, not zero, but after 4 years or 8 years or whatever, it's not their problem anymore and they can move on.

I'm totally with you on the accountability thing...I'm really just addressing the poster that said that no city employees should make more than $100k. I've got to run to a meeting, but I'll try and touch on how much it would hurt COJ to not be competitive in the pay market later.

[m74reeves]

Also worth pointing out that there are 17 attorney's at OGC that make over $100k and I believe there are a total of >30 attorney's at OGC. Attorney's play a bigger role in government than people realize and can be very valuable, but it does seem like we are heavily staffed there, especially in relation to a lot of other city departments.

Several department heads are also lawyers...

Carla Miller, Ethics office
Cleveland Ferguson, Mayor's Deputy Admin Officer
Terrance Ashanta Barker, Community Development
Alexis Lambert, Public Accountability

any others? there certainly is a high %age of lawyers on staff

[Cheshire Cat]

Good article and one that I am glad to see presented.  Understanding who is being paid to do what and how much in this city is a very important thing.  Two things just to add to the facts.  John Germany has left the employment of the City.  Carla Miller, the City Ethics Director is not among the top paid.  Her pay is in the area of 60K.  She is grossly underpaid and does the work she does because of a sense of responsibility to the people of Jacksonville.  Many don't know that she is considered a worldwide expert on Ethics and her job is perhaps one of the most difficult in the city.

There are some members in the mayor's administration that are worrisome to me, not because of their pay rate but rather because of their political connections and corporate mentality which may not be representative of the feelings and desires of local taxpayers. 

There are also some superfluous positions in the Mayors administration which while not on the list are expenditures that are to my view without true merit beyond looking good.  For instance former senator Tony Hill.  What does he do?  Anyone?  How about the 60k figure sports guy who the mayor hired after taking a private plane trip to one of his functions?  Or how about the "education" czar who is basically a redundant show piece of the mayor who is now another person to negotiate around for the true Duval County School Board. Or there is that personal photographer and extra body guard.  This is this type of thing that gets under the skin of taxpayers.  It is really waste where there should be none.

[MEGATRON]

Quick Stephen, please tell me the salaries of the head attorney for Charlotte, Tampa, Nashville, etc? How about their Public Works Director and so on....

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/29/94573/city-of-charlotte-salary-database.html?appSession=95960563685545&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPIsortType=asc&CPIorderby=Annual

[MEGATRON]

http://data3.tennessean.com/view-database/metro-nashville-employee-salaries-604.html?page=0&sortcolumn=2&sortorder=Desc#dataset

[JayBird]

Also worth pointing out that there are 17 attorney's at OGC that make over $100k and I believe there are a total of >30 attorney's at OGC. Attorney's play a bigger role in government than people realize and can be very valuable, but it does seem like we are heavily staffed there, especially in relation to a lot of other city departments.

Several department heads are also lawyers...

Carla Miller, Ethics office
Cleveland Ferguson, Mayor's Deputy Admin Officer
Terrance Ashanta Barker, Community Development
Alexis Lambert, Public Accountability

any others? there certainly is a high %age of lawyers on staff

I tend to think lawyers and politics go hand in hand, all they way back to the beginnings of this country.

[Cheshire Cat]

JayBird, did you read my above post about Carla and what she is paid?  She certainly does not belong in the overpaid category.  Of the many attorneys I have know working within city government, she would have to be one with the greatest integrity in office that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. 

[JayBird]

Yes I did, and agreed with your post. I was just merely pointing out that in my opinion no matter where you look in city, state, national politics you'll find a high amount of lawyers. Kind of like saying a lot of doctors work in a hospital.

[m74reeves]

JayBird, did you read my above post about Carla and what she is paid?  She certainly does not belong in the overpaid category.  Of the many attorneys I have know working within city government, she would have to be one with the greatest integrity in office that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. 

he was reacting to CityLife's and my posts about the plethora of attorneys on staff in the City. i was not singling these people out b/c of their pay or saying they're unqualified.

just another interesting fact to look at in addition to people's salaries.