Next week, Mayor D.C. Reeves will present to the Pensacola City Council for approval of new pay ranges. It’s the first step in his comprehensive pay reform that will be phased over three years with a total estimated cost of $5 million.
“That’s the first step that has to happen before we can make line-by-line adjustments throughout the 800-plus employees who work here,” the mayor said. “If our expectation is to maintain this beautiful city that we have and to keep you safe and all that, then the priority has to be the people who work here.”
As I have reported earlier, the compensation study conducted by Evergreen found the City’s salaries were in the 21st percentile. Reeves said, “Of a hundred municipalities, 79 pay better than we do.”
“This will be the largest single-payer reform in the history of the city. It’ll be a three-year phased approach. That’ll be more than $5 million; it’ll be about two and a half million of that out of the general fund. There’ll be no changes to the budget for this year,” Mayor Reeves said.
He added, “Seventy-five percent of that money is going to people who make less than $60,000 a year.” – That covers about 242 of the City’s 800 employees, according to the mayor.
His team is still working on individual raises that will be rolled out in January if the Council approves the new pay ranges.
New Welcome Sign
The Florida Department of Transportation has approved the new Welcome sign for the foot of the Chappie James Bridge. Mayor Reeves hopes what FDOT budgeted for the sign will cover the construction costs.
“Like anything else, I’ve got a little concern,” he said. “The number allotted to us for that sign was allotted in 2018, and we’re bidding something in 2023. So, 2018 construction value and 2023 bidding has us crossing all our fingers. “We’ll see what happens, and hopefully we get as close as possible to budget, but we’ll find out.”
New Welcome Sign: Pensacola’s code of ordinances approved by the city council explains that 1698 is “the year of the first settlement of Pensacola by the Spaniards.” The earliest date on the city seal also approved by the council is 1698. Even that date may be wrong. The 1698 Spanish fort was built on what is now NAS Pensacola “far” outside of the city. Then a second fort was built on Santa Rosa Island (Pensacola Beach). A third fort was established in 1754 in what is now the City of Pensacola. [I have read history books by local experts that describe a small settlement in what is now downtown as early as 1740.] The city regularly runs advertisements about the Port of Pensacola on News Radio 92.3 citing that it has been the local economy’s driving force since 1754. Mayor Reeves has some sort of childish infatuation often claiming that Pensacola was founded before St. Augustine. Florida’s Department of State has a different opinion. Its website reports, “Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the longest continuously occupied European settlement in North America.” Someone should tell FDOT about St. Augustine. They must know someone over at the Department of State.