Ask for the world; settle for what you can get.
A negotiation tactic as old as commerce itself apparently worked this week for Key West City Manager Brian L. Barroso, whose raise request prompted a social media uproar when the Feb. 11 city commission meeting agenda was published online and showed Barroso asking for a $50,000 raise in salary, a $400 monthly increase to his transportation allowance and an extension that would change his two-year contract to a four-year one that would last until 2029.
The commission on Feb. 11 ultimately voted 4-2 to instead give Barroso a $20,000 bump, bringing his annual base salary from $245,000 to $265,000.
Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez and commissioner Sam Kaufman, who is running against Henriquez in the upcoming mayoral election, both voted against the increase. Commissioner Monica Haskell said she was voting yes in the spirit of compromise.
Commissioner Donie Lee started the salary discussion by outlining the changes he would be willing to accept, including a raise to $265,000 instead of the requested $295,000. Commissioner Greg Veliz, who was appointed to fulfill the term of the late commissioner Mary Lou Hoover, spoke with a unique perspective, having previously worked as Key West’s city manager. Veliz seemed willing to approve the full $295,000 salary, but the vote never came to that.
Prior to the discussion and vote, several community members spoke out against the amount of the raise and criticized Barroso for including it on the commission’s consent agenda, meaning it would have been approved in bulk with no discussion unless a commissioner asked that it be pulled and discussed.
In the days prior to the meeting, Chris Massicotte, who is running for Hoover’s commission seat in District 5, told the Keys Weekly, “Elections are coming up in August that could change the makeup of the commission. One of the first things they would have to consider is whether to renew the city manager’s contract. It seems to me they are doing this now to take that decision away from a future commission and make it much more expensive to make any changes to city management at a time when the city’s ability to levy property taxes is uncertain.”
The discussion of the city manager’s salary also highlighted the continuing animosity between Kaufman and Barroso, which required the mayor to step in and referee during a heated exchange at a meeting last year.
This week’s meeting saw Kaufman questioning whether Barroso had begun taking any classes to pursue a certification in public administration, which was part of his initial employment agreement. (Barroso said he has been enrolled in Florida State University’s master’s level public administration program.) It also saw Barroso accusing Kaufman of misleading the public by implying that Barroso had not been responsive to emails from Kaufman.
“To sit there and imply a lack of communication, the lack isn’t coming from me,” Barroso said. “You chose not to respond to me.”
Welcome to Key West?
In other commission news, lawmakers rejected six versions of the new welcome sign that will be installed at the Triangle entrance to the island. The proposed six designs were all made from granite, prompting Commissioner Aaron Castillo, a funeral director, to say, “They look like gravestones. They look too much like the gravestones in the cemetery.”
His fellow commissioners largely agreed, with Commissioner Haskell adding, “These granite headstones would be worse than having no sign at all.”
Doug Bradshaw, the city’s engineering director, assured the commissioners that nothing was set in quote (pun intended), and that granite had just been used as an example because of its durability given the punishing Key West climate of sun, salt, heat and humidity.
Bradshaw said his team will now assemble a Request for Proposals to solicit new ideas for sign designs.
See keysweekly.com for a full report from the Feb. 11 city commission meeting, which was reconvening at 5 p.m., after press time.
