Miami-Dade County employee salaries
Miami-Dade County employee salaries are public records under the Florida Sunshine Law.
Contents |
[edit] Salaries and benefits
[edit] 2011
In 2011, Mayor Carlos Giminez created five new "deputy mayor" positions. Salaries for four of the five new positions are as follows:[1]
| Name | Position | Salary |
| Ed Marquez | Deputy Mayor | $267,000 |
| Jack Osterholt | Deputy Mayor | $250,000 |
| Genaro Iglesias | Deputy Mayor | $225,000 |
| Alina T. Hudak | Deputy Mayor | $259,000 |
Mayor Giminez has also proposed cutting base pay for employees instead of requiring higher contributions to health insurance. Instead of a 10% healthcare contribution, there will be a 8% base salary reduction. This, along with previous salary reductions, amounts to a base pay cut of 11% to 21%. The changes are estimated to save $135 million while the county currently faces a $409 million budget gap in the next year.[2]
The Collective Bargaining Agreements for Miami-Dade County can be found here.
[edit] 2009
The most recently available salary data for Miami-Dade County reflects Fiscal Year 2009-2010, and contains details for all employees earning over $100,000 per year. In total, there were 3,301 employees earning over $100,000 (10% of all employees).[3] Employees with the Police and Fire departments made up 1,400 of the list's names.[4]
There were 75 employees earning over $200,000:[5]
| Name | Position | Total Take Home Salary |
| Cathy Jackson | Director, Audit and Management Services | $230,549.87 |
| Thomas Abbott | Assistant County Attorney | $267,410.06 |
| Jose Abreu | Assistant County Attorney | $258,512.76 |
| Deborah Mastin | Assistant County Attorney | $251,085.19 |
| Robert Meyers | Director, Commission on Ethics and Public Trust | $240,737.37 |
| Timothy Ryan | Director, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation | $210,287.66 |
| James Allen | Assistant County Attorney | $278,567.42 |
| Maria Arista Volsky | Assistant County Attorney | $217,406.71 |
| Joni Armstrongcoff | Assistant County Attorney | $287,164.32 |
| Steven Bass | Assistant County Attorney | $261,001.14 |
| Hugo Benitez | Assistant County Attorney | $284,783.19 |
| Ronald Bernstein | Assistant County Attorney | $230,158.69 |
| Jason Bloch | Assistant County Attorney | $219,326.55 |
| Geraldine Bonzon-Keenan | Assistant County Attorney | $205,487.55 |
| William Candela | Assistant County Attorney | $230,712.35 |
| Karon Coleman | Assistant County Attorney | $204,018.21 |
| Craig Coller | Assistant County Attorney | $270,204.16 |
| Robert Cuevas, Jr. | County Attorney | $358,856.13 |
| Robert Duvall | Assistant County Attorney | $270,644.44 |
| Eric Gressman | Assistant County Attorney | $254,418.61 |
| Evan Grob | Assistant County Attorney | $267,549.97 |
| Gerald Hefferman | Assistant County Attorney | $258,036.99 |
| Cynthia Johnson-Stacks | Assistant County Attorney | $273,311.14 |
| Marlene Klein | Assistant County Attorney | $200,150.61 |
| Lee Kraftchick | Assistant County Attorney | $284,886.72 |
| Bruce Libhaber | Assistant County Attorney | $209,020.24 |
| Thomas Logue | Assistant County Attorney | $245,490.20 |
| Jess McCarty | Assistant County Attorney | $245,473.80 |
| John McInnis | Assistant County Attorney | $218,629.27 |
| Bernardo Pastor | Assistant County Attorney | $210,385.44 |
| Abigail Price Williams | First Assistant County Attorney | $293,776.66 |
| Douglas Rice | Assistant County Attorney | $218,766.79 |
| Thomas Robertson | Assistant County Attorney | $227,669.87 |
| Eric Rodriguez | Assistant County Attorney | $228,011.84 |
| Oren Rosenthal | Assistant County Attorney | $208,071.77 |
| Gerald Sanchez | Assistant County Attorney | $273,522.63 |
| Edward Shafer | Assistant County Attorney | $224,582.38 |
| Eugene Shy, Jr. | Assistant County Attorney | $255,510.58 |
| Stephen Steiglitz | Assistant County Attorney | $250,898.48 |
| Peter Tell | Assistant County Attorney | $234,359.17 |
| Melinda Thornton | Assistant County Attorney | $246,560.91 |
| Carlos Alvarez | Mayor (since recalled) | $315,462.39 |
| George Burgess | County Manager | $422,118.22 |
| Alina Hudak | Assistant County Manager | $264,343.27 |
| Ysela Llort | Assistant County Manager | $260,970.34 |
| Michael Spring | Director, Department of Cultural Affairs | $245,539.50 |
| Angel Petisco | Director, Enterprise Technology Services | $200,592.55 |
| Lowell, Hammer | Director, Finance | $211,597.86 |
| Stephen Hunt | Fire Lieutenant | $210.360.42 |
| Herminio Lorenzo | Fire Chief | $225,010.09 |
| Alan Perry | Chief Fire Officer | $208,653.60 |
| Alfredo Suarez | Deputy Fire Chief | $201,479.63 |
| Judith Zito | Director, Government Information Center | $209,290.28 |
| Patricia Braynon | Director, Housing Finance Authority | $247,124.54 |
| Angela Maher | Director, Human Resources Department | $213,540.55 |
| Christoph Mazzella | Inspector General | $251,053.52 |
| Kenneth Hutchins | Assistant Medical Examiner | $209,382.22 |
| Bruce Hyma | Medical Examiner | $250,940.25 |
| Mark Shuman | Assistant Medical Examiner | $209,764.76 |
| Gregory Fortner | Director, Public Housing Agency | $223,058.67 |
| James Loftus | Director, Police Department | $200,297.82 |
| Kathleen Woods Richards | Director, Department of Solid Waste Management | $206,244.12 |
| Jennifer Glazer-Moon | Director, Strategic Business Management | $215,417.52 |
| Hugo Salazar | Deputy Director, Strategic Business Management | $227,018.34 |
| Susanne Torriente | Director, Office of Sustainability | $214,367.41 |
| Harpal Kapoor | Director, Miami-Dade Transit | $242,602.70 |
| Charlena Minus | Rail Traffic Controller | $217,179.18 |
| Eric Walker | Rail Traffic Controller | $208,954.75 |
| Henry Gillman | Assistant County Attorney | $259,007.38 |
| John Renfrow | Director, Water and Sewer | $238,232.61 |
| Joseph Ruiz, Jr. | Deputy Director, Water and Sewer | $227,018.34 |
| L Yoder | Deputy Director, Water and Sewer | $205,675.62 |
[edit] 2008
The top 10 salaries in 2008 were:[6]
| Name | Position | Department | Year Hired | Annual Salary |
| BURGESS, GEORGE M | COUNTY MG | County Manager | 2003 | $343,516.00 |
| CUEVAS JR, ROBERT A | CTY ATTORN | County Attorney\'s Office | 2007 | $290,732.00 |
| PRICE WILLIAMS, ABIGAIL | ASS CTY 4 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1990 | $285,368.00 |
| KRAFTCHICK, LEE A | ASS CTY 4 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1982 | $281,705.00 |
| BENITEZ, HUGO E | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1986 | $281,597.00 |
| DUVALL, ROBERT A | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1980 | $279,175.00 |
| GOLDSTEIN, THOMAS | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1975 | $278,701.00 |
| COLLER, CRAIG H | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1979 | $277,984.00 |
| KRACHT, JAMES K | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1975 | $276,525.00 |
| ARMSTRONGCOFFEY, JONI | ASTCTY AT3 | County Attorney\'s Office | 1982 | $275,329.00 |
[edit] Benefits
Miami-Dade County employees receive the following benefits:[7]
- Pension plan through the Florida Retirement System
- Dental
- Disability
- Medical
- Life
- Deferred compensation program
- Paid vacation
- Sick days
- Paid holidays
The information concerning benefits can be found in the 2012 Benefits Guide.
Employees are required to pay 5% of base pay towards their health insurance and a 3% contribution towards their retirement plan.[8][9]
[edit] Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties, and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
[edit] Importance of public employee pay disclosure
In July 2010, the LA Times uncovered that officials in Bell, California were making remarkably high salaries.[10] The Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was earning a yearly $787,637. It was later uncovered that Rizzo's total compensation after taking benefits into account topped $1.5 million dollars a year.[11]
For comparison:[10]
- Manhattan Beach with about 7,000 fewer people than Bell paid its most recent city manager $257,484 a year.
- Long Beach, with a population close to 500,000, pays its city manager $235,000 annually.
- Los Angeles County pays its Chief Executive William T Fujioka $338,458.
[edit] Corruption solution
After the Los Angeles Times report, governments began to proactively disclose salary information of its employees. Before the end of the Summer of 2010, more than a dozen cities in Orange County, for example, posted salary information on the front pages of their websites.[12]
The cost of transparency websites maintaining such information ranges from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. These websites also save money, and this often is not taken into account when measuring costs.
Citizens upset about the breach of trust and armed with information formed a group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse, which pushed for an independent audit of city salaries and contracts.[13]
Citizens, empowered with information, are key to keeping government free from corruption and efficient. A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia revealed that the city of Philadelphia has a problem with the efficiency and costs of public employee pensions. [14]. The amount that Philadelphia pays to pension recipients limits the city’s ability to use its budget effectively. The report revealed that there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701. [14] The authors of the study recommend three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions. [14] First, improve data collection so that decision-making in terms of pension policies is more informed. Second, promote transparency for better accountability to citizens. Third, reduce costs and use the savings for developing Philadelphia.
[edit] Resistance to public employee salary data as public records
The idea of making public employee salaries is relatively new. In 2008, several local government employee associations and unions protested the posting of state employee salaries by the newspaper The Sacramento Bee.[15] [16] At the time, it was seen as a safety risk and invasion of privacy.
[edit] Sunshine Review aims in posting salary information
Often times, publicly posted salaries leave out important information. Salary schedules can be published are ranges, not as specific take-home compensation.[12] [11]And high-level, highly-paid positions are often not disclosed proactively.[12] Additionally, salaries leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aims to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ↑ "Miami-Dade mayor's new hires earning handsome salaries," MiamiHerald.com, July 28, 2011
- ↑ Miami Herald "County employees' future: Low pay or costly health benefits"
- ↑ "Miami-Dade County Employees' Salaries Criticized," CBSMiami.com, November 9, 2010
- ↑ "Salaries for 3,000 county employees released," WSVN.com, November 10, 2010
- ↑ Salary Information For Employees Earning $100,000 or more, FY 2009-2010
- ↑ Miami Fly "Miami-Dade Employee Salaries (2008)"
- ↑ Benefits
- ↑ Employee FAQ
- ↑ Miami Herald "County employees' future: Low pay or costly health benefits"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Bell city manager might be highest paid in nation: $787,637 a year," LA Times, July 14, 2010
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Benefits push Bell ex-manager's compensation to more than $1.5 million," LA Times, August 8, 2010
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "O.C. cities dash to post personnel salaries", Orange County Register, August 10, 2010
- ↑ "California Official's $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests", Bloomberg, July 20, 2010
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 '’Philadelphia’s Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, January 23, 2008
- ↑ "California State Workers Protest Salary Database Publication," GovTech, March 17, 2008
- ↑ State Worker Salary Search, Sacramento Bee
