It took awhile but Inweekly finally received the personnel folders of the two top city employees: Chief Operations Officer Tamara Fountain and City Administrator Eric Olson.
Fountain was used in November 2012 as vendor for the city and was paid $60,000 a year (Fountain Contract).
She was hired in July 2013 as Communications Administrator with an annual salary of $84,988.80. Six months later, Fountain was given a 17 percent raise –increasing her salary to $100,006, which made her the highest paid governmental PIO/Communications person in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Fountain was made Chief Operations Officer in August 2014 when City Administrator Colleen Castille was let go. She was paid an additional $700 per week for additional assistant city administrator duties – about $22000-23,000 for the period 8/15/14-3/31/15.
When Olson was named City Administrator, Fountain was given a 15-percent raise, increasing her salary to $114,982. The explanation given in the folder was she was handling the four enterprise accounts. From July 2013 to March 2015, Fountain’s pay has increased 35.29 percent.
Olson had a similar rapid rise to power and affluence. He was hired in Sept. 2013 as Initiative Coordinator for $65,000. He got no pay raises until he was made Assistant City Administrator in August 2014. Then his pay was increased to $100,006. In March 2015, when he was named City Administrator, Olson’s salary jumped to $133,016 -even though Fountain shares most of his duties. His salary jumped 2.04 times in less than two years.
Another interesting point, Olson’s personnel file has his resume. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy and served as liaison officer. Once out of the service, he worked with Pensacola Habitat. He has no prior public administration experience before being hired by the city in 2013.
Fountain’s folder has no resume.The city has no records of her education or professional experience.