LARGO – A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16 when city commissioners will consider giving themselves a raise for the first time in two years.
If the 4 percent increase is approved, the mayor’s annual salary will go up to $19,688 and each commissioner would earn $13,125.
Two of the city’s persistent spending watchdogs, Curtis Holmes and John Atanasio supported the increase.
“Take it,” insisted Holmes. He said the increase was insignificant in the face of 2009 budget increases of $20 million and that the elected officials had earned an increase.
Atanasio, a former city official in New Jersey, agreed saying “you deserve it, it’s a token.”
Commissioners offered no comments in approving the increase with only Commissioner Mary Gray Black voting against it without saying why. Later she pointed to her comments last month when she suggested the commissioners should forgo any salary increase this year. She said the city had eliminated jobs and city residents were facing hard economic times.
Mayor Pat Gerard, who proposed the increase, noted this would be only the third increase for commissioners in the past five years. In her memo to fellow commissioners supporting the increase, Gerard listed the following increases: 7 percent in 2003, 3 percent in 2005 and 4 percent in 2007. No increases were approved in 2004 and 2006.
In the past the part-time commissioners have justified their salaries as important as they are expected to attend – and pay full price – events of local service organizations and nonprofit organizations.
Gerard assured residents that the proposed increase does not include any benefits such as health insurance costs paid by the city. The ordinance was amended before being approved to more clearly indicate the increase applied only to salaries. The elected officials receive insurance coverage and retirement benefits in addition to the salaries.
In other business, the commission approved moving the city’s contract for medical insurance coverage from Aetna to Cigna. The new contract, for $6.1 million, represents a 6 percent increase from the current year, according to Susan Sinz, human resources director.
“Cigna’s proposal represents the most competitive cost for matching our current plan design coverage across all plans,” Sinz told commissioners. She noted that the insurance company’s first proposal would have cost a 15 percent increase over this year’s budget.
Sinz said a major reduction was obtained by agreeing to require employees to take advantage of the insurance company’s mandatory health condition survey taken of employees during the enrollment period. She said this is done by computer and employees are not required to give specific details of any medical conditions if they choose not to. They are only required to participate in the survey.
Another significant benefit of the new plan, Sinz said, is that employees would no longer need referral by their primary care physician to see a specialist.
