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Margate Salaries Doom City Coffers
• While property tax revenues were going down, city pay was going up.
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Thursday,
July 22, 2010
Salary increases for city employees issued in fiscal year (FY) 2010 may have largely contributed to the almost $3.8 million budget deficit Margate taxpayers now face in 2011. While the rest of America was tightening their belts, city officials in Margate approved salary increases despite having the knowledge and foresight at hand to plan for the recession ahead.
While ad valorem taxes in the city had already begun spiraling downward, city salaries and matching costs (benefits) paid for by Margate taxpayers increased by almost $750,000 last year.
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Prior to approving salary increases for FY 2010, city officials had seen taxable real property values in Margate drop 10 percent in 2008; then plummet another 13 percent in 2009 (View millage rate history under 'Files' to the right).
Even after Florida voters signaled local governments that fewer ad valorem taxes would be funding city budgets with the passing of the Save our Homes homestead exception increase in January 2008( 64.4% of voters in favor - 35.6% opposed), city officials in Margate moved forward with salary increases regardless - an unexpected recommendation from a city finance department with nine veteran employees all of whom receive longevity bonuses.
Of the 18 city departments funded by Margate’s General Fund, 14 departments received salary increases in FY 2010, offsetting roughly $450,000 in salary cuts and resulting in an almost $750,000 net gain in salary expenditures.
Salary cuts included a 44% drop in Parks & Recreation aquatics program salaries, a 27% cut in Public Works Administration, a 14% cut in Road Fund salaries, a 2% cut in the City Manager’s office and a 4% cut in Public Works transportation (Margate Inner City Transit).
At the time salary increases were awarded, economists at all levels of government and the private sector had warned America to brace for continued recession.
City Commissioners awarded themselves a 4% pay increase amounting to a total increase of almost $6,000 in wages.
Finance increased by roughly $51,000 or 5% without adding personnel.
The Building Department took a 5% increase without adding personnel.
Human Resources increased by 5% without adding personnel.
City Clerk salaries increased by 7% without adding personnel.
The City Attorney’s office took an increase of 16% without adding personnel. This increase appears in the budget to be largely attributed to a $30,000 line item identified as a Community Redevelopment expense.
Margate Police dropped two positions, but increased salaries by $344,929 effectively negating any potential savings to the budget or gains from the elimination of unfilled positions. As a result of a Fraternal Order of Police union agreement with the city, some individual raises in the department were as high as 12% last year.
The Margate Fire Department grew by one person, but salaries as a whole grew 4%, or roughly $322,000. Some pay increases in the fire department in FY 2010 were as high as 15%.*
Public Works Building and Garage personnel were granted 5% and 4% raises respectively and Parks & Recreation Administration and Maintenance personnel received 3% pay raises.
*Although city officials have proposed a pay freeze across the board for fire personnel in FY 2011, a 2% salary increase scheduled in the amount of $168,647 appears as a budget line item with the addition of one personnel to the department.
Margate proposed salary cuts and increases FY 2011
Of Margate’s proposed $50,549,762 budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011, about $41 million, or 82 percent, is comprised of salaries and matching costs funded by the General Fund, making it the most controllable aspect of the budget.
The highest labor costs by far in the budget are police ($11.7 million), fire ($8.8 million), and worker benefits ($13.6 million classified in the budget as non-departmental), which altogether comprise 82 percent of total city salaries and matching costs.
Excluded from General Fund salary and matching cost expenditures are salaries for the Road Fund ($216,870), Stormwater ($509,069) and DEES, Department of Environmental and Engineering Services ($7,094,730).
Salary cuts proposed for FY 2011 come largely in the form of unfilled positions, the slashing of about eight jobs and the elimination of the Margate Inner City Transit Staff (14 jobs), which was outsourced to a third party so that all could remain employed.
Unfilled positions, for which taxpayers do not pay, mean that although an empty position appears as a budget line item, no expense is incurred because the salary is never paid, which in theory gives the appearance of saving money and slashing budget line items when eliminated.
For instance, although the proposed FY 2011 Margate budget reduces police personnel by six, the drop in departmental salaries as a whole is proposed to decrease by $73,000 – far less than what salaries would be paid to six police personnel in total. Conversely in FY 2010, Margate taxpayers saw police eliminate two positions, but at the same time increase total salaries by 3%.
Other departments with proposed salary increases for FY 2011 include Building at 1% ($5,000) and Parks & Recreation Administration at 1% ($5,200).
Margate City Manager, Frank Porcella has announced that he has closed Margate's $3.8 million budget gap and balanced the city's FY 2011 budget. Collective bargaining agreements with the Federated Public Employees union and International Fire Fighters Association, however, have yet to be reached with the city.
Porcella’s proposed FY 2011 balanced budget is scheduled to go before city commissioners in September for final approval.
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