City manager wants his pay raise pared

Gulfport's Bob Lee makes $79,161, asks for $89,210 but is given $100,855. Now, he wants to give $3,000 of it back.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

GULFPORT -- Two days after his bosses voted him a $21,000 raise, City Manager Bob Lee said he'll ask City Council members to reconsider their generosity and reward him a little less.

Lee still stands to make at least $97,000 a year -- in salary and annual bonus -- which puts him at the top of an income list of managers for similarly sized cities.

"I have no question about whether I've earned the salary which the City Council approved, or whether I'm worthy to receive it," Lee said Thursday in a memo to council members, explaining that he was uncomfortable with the size of the raise.

Several weeks ago, the council asked Lee to survey managers' salaries in similarly sized cities (Gulfport has a population of about 12,000) and propose a raise that also would include a $5,000 "bonus" for completing his doctorate.

Lee subsequently asked for:

A 6 percent increase in his base pay and the bonus, which together would raise his yearly income to $89,210.66.

A fifth week of paid vacation.

And a 3 percent bump in the city's contribution to his retirement compensation.

He ended up getting quite a bit more.

"Is there anywhere in the state where the city manager has a doctorate in public administration?" council member John Phillips asked at Tuesday's meeting. "Bob Lee is underrating himself."

Council member Jack Olsen proposed a $92,855 base salary, an $8,000 doctoral bonus, and an additional two weeks of vacation. "It would take a blind man not to see how Gulfport has improved in the last 10 years," he said.

The council unanimously approved the increased benefits.

Just three months ago, Lee proposed a raise for council members. The council unanimously approved the pay increase, their first raise in 10 years. It was based on a study that showed Gulfport elected officials were underpaid compared with similarly sized cities.

According to data that Lee received from the Florida League of Cities, his current salary of $79,161 is lower than all but one of the manager salaries in comparable Tampa Bay cities. Oldsmar and St. Pete Beach, with populations of about 10,000, pay their city managers about $82,000. Temple Terrace (population 19,000) pays $85,000. And Dunedin (population 34,000) pays its manager $102,551.

Only Seminole, with a population of about 10,000 and a manager's salary of $79,005, pays less than Gulfport. However, Seminole is currently considering a $8,350 raise for City Manager Frank Edmunds.

Lee said none of the managers surveyed hold doctoral degrees. Nor do any of his contemporaries on the League of Cities list have as much career experience. He was hired as Gulfport's city manager 10 years ago and previously served nine years as a public administrator in other cities.

Lee received his doctorate in public administration from Nova Southeastern University in June. His dissertation, based on a survey of 187 Florida city and county managers, concluded that most managers listed early life challenges and the influence of fathers as most significant in developing their leadership skills. Schooling, the managers said, was not that important.

At the Aug. 15 meeting, Lee plans to ask the council to reduce by $3,000 a yearly bonus for having his doctorate and not include it in his base salary or retirement compensation. Such a revision would save the city money, Lee said, by reducing the total compensation and retirement contributions, as well as computations of future salary increases.

The final salary and bonus are scheduled to take effect Aug. 13, Lee's anniversary date with the city, but he won't activate the pay increase until a resolution is reached with the council.

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