Council Election Results

Congratulations to David Levy for winning another 3 years on the City Council. Congratulations also to James D’Loughy for running a good campaign and making the race unusually competitive. The voters have spoken (although only 11% of them did so), and it was good that they had a choice in this race.

From the graph below, you will see that David Levy maintains a strong base of support in Ballen Isles and PGA National, while Mr. D’Loughy picked up support in Frenchman’s Reserve and Creek, coming within 6 votes there.

Click on the map segment for detailed results for that precinct or refer to the table below.

Precinct	Registered	Cast	Levy	D’Loughy	% Turnout
1186	1459	153	67	86	10
1188	787	47	17	30	6
1190	2358	215	81	134	9
1192	1438	97	56	41	7
1194	1875	482	244	238	26
1238	1541	222	131	91	14
1240	2484	236	154	82	10
1242	2491	322	204	118	13
1244	1502	183	122	61	12
1246	2140	133	59	74	6
1248	1491	210	106	104	14
1250	70	13	9	4	19
1252	2272	726	573	153	32
1254	442	59	46	13	13
1260	1298	126	49	77	10
1264	7	0	0	0	0
1266	563	11	6	5	2
1268	302	8	6	2	3
1270	12	0	0	0	0
1272	1898	183	75	108	10
1274	1602	163	63	100	10
1280	436	30	13	17	7
1284	2268	119	101	17	5
1288	38	7	6	1	18
1290	2143	151	84	67	7
1292	61	9	3	6	15
1296	727	17	10	7	2
1306	8	0	0	0	0
1310	4	0	0	0	0
1324	1304	40	22	18	3
1326	588	52	25	27	9
1340	14	0	0	0	0
1352	2067	125	69	56	6
1360	932	72	19	53	8
1372	149	6	3	3	4
TOTALS	149	4217	2423	1793	10.9

Council Votes 3-1 to spend $1.6M on Employee Raises, Bonuses and Capital Projects

At the March City Council Meeting, Ordinance 1, 2013 passed on second reading with a 3-1 vote. A routine adjustment of budgeted initial fund balances, the $1.6M “surplus” reflecting higher revenues collected or lower actual expenses than budgeted, was wholly targeted to new spending.

So what is the context for this apparent relaxation of austerity? Has the local economy turned the corner?

The details of the proposal were first proposed in February by Vice Mayor Premuroso – a 2% across the board raise for all employees, a 1.5% one-time bonus on top of that, and $783K of capital spending, including $611K for golf course irrigation modernization.

Cautionary comments were made by residents. John Chaplik cautioned that the economy has not improved enough to raise spending levels and thought should be given to returning some to the taxpayer. He also suggested that there be a review of how surpluses are handled. Kevin Easton suggested that performance based raises made more sense than across the board increases. Iris Scheibl pointed out that the county property appraiser is projecting a meager 1.5% increase in valuations and that the economy has not turned the corner. She also mentioned that last years’s move to raise the communications tax was based on the threat of declining reserves which we are now apparently spending. Two others spoke in favor of the ordinance.

In discussion, all the Council Members were in favor of the raises, and some wanted to increase the bonus to 2%. “Our employees are the best in Florida, if not in the country” said Eric Jablin. “We will lose these people if we don’t reward them”, said Joe Russo. Marcie Tinsley agreed we should proceed with caution, but the staff has done a good job without complaint. These three were less supportive of the capital spending and Joe Russo went so far as to vote no on that basis, as he believes the normal budget process is the time to consider things like golf course improvements.

The Vice Mayor sealed the deal with a well prepared and somewhat eloquent pitch for his proposal as presented. In his business (Bert Premuroso is a banker), he is seeing an uptick in the economy and across the board raises. He does not favor merit based increases as “some people don’t like them”, and foresees this level of raises as being a normal thing for the next few budget cycles. He reminded us that they have committed to flat millage for five years (instead of reducing it as valuations climb), and the increased property tax revenue that will result will let us continue to improve employee compensation and capital improvements.

With Mr. Premuroso’s closing, only Joe Russo maintained objection (only to the capital projects) and the ordinance passed 3-1.

It should be noted that the 2% increase applies to the Council as well as staff, although they turned down the bonus. A 2004 ordinance described by Eric Jablin as “making it easier to raise our pay”, requires that any cost of living increase given to employees must also be given to the Council. The City Attorney confirmed that to forgo the raise they would have to repeal the ordinance.

Since Mr. Premuroso signalled his intention to offer raises again next year, it may be useful to examine how the city employees are compensated relative to their peers in the county and other municipalities. We will be analysing this in a future article, but for now consider:

1. In the 2013 budget, the average employee compensation (salary and benefits) was $111,488, with an average salary of $73,681. This compares to about $67K for county government employees, and a county-wide average income (all employers) of $51K.

2. The current average city employee salary is 45% higher than the county average income. In 2006, when the average city employee salary was just $61K, it was only 27% above the county-wide average income of $48K.

3. In 2011/2012 a 3% employee increase was implemented for all FRS (Florida Retirement System) employees (not police and fire/rescue) to compensate for the fact that a state law mandates that they would now have to pay 3% in salary toward their pensions annually. It was justified by the Council

4. In the text of the 2012-2013 budget it states:

In the last three budget years, the beginning balance adjustments have been considerable – an increase of over $5M in 2012, $8M in 2013, and this year’s $1.6M. Perhaps in the future it would be wise to project during the budget cycle how such a “surplus” would be spent if it materializes. That would be useful information when the discussion turns to “spending” or “saving” the revenue expected from increasing valuations in the next few years.

---

* Note:
1.Employee average salary is obtained by dividing budgeted salary by number of employees. Total compensation contains salary, retirement, FICA, Health Insurance and Workers Compensation.
2. County-wide income is taken from PBC budget documents.

On the agenda for March 7 – spending the budget surplus

The City Council will be conducting its March meeting on Thursday, March 7 at 7pm.  The summary agenda can be viewed here.   Please review it for items that may be of interest to you.  Two agenda items which caught our attention:

Ordinance 1, 2013

First on the regular agenda is 2nd reading of Ordinance 1, 2013 – which “Amends the Fiscal Year 2012/13 budget to adjust fund balance carryovers to actual amounts and to carry forward amounts committed from the FY 2011/2012 budget for outstanding purchase orders and open projects that cross fiscal years.”

At the last council meeting, it was suggested that as there was a $1 ,658,725 surplus, perhaps it could be used to give the employees a 2% increase and apply the remainder to fund some capital improvement projects.  Staff has come back with the following proposal:

• A 2% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for all full-time and year-round part-time employees – $399,479
• A one-time 1.5% lump-sum payment for all full-time and year-round part-time employees – $476,493
• Funding for capital improvement projects that need to be addressed in the current fiscal year that are unbudgeted – $782,753

The Capital improvement projects proposed are:

• Golf course irrigation modernization – $610,753
• City-wide security system enhancements –  $50,000
• Covered structure for Fire Department generator – $50,000
• Youth Enrichment Center fenced multipurpose area – $72,000

The complete details of the ordinance can be found on the full agenda starting on page 48.  The agenda is very long and will take awhile to download.

NOTE:  Correction – There was a suggestion of a lump sum (bonus) at the last council meeting on top of the 2% suggested COLA.  But there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the council suggesting that the surplus be returned to the city’s taxpayers.

Resolution 21, 2013

Also on the agenda is Resolution 21, 2013 establishing NAIP  “NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA ESTABLISHING CITYWIDE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES TO IMPLEMENT THE NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (NIAP) FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF PAVING AND DRAINAGE, AND WATER AND SANITARY SEWER IMPROVEMENTS”

This resolution will be of interest to those who have followed the long history of issues with the Sunset Drive neighborhood after annexation.  It establishes procedures to be used in bringing forward proposals, determining assessments, getting the votes from the affected neighborhood etc.   Residents of any communities who may have similar needs should carefully review the proposed policies and address your questions to the council.

Grassroots Groups Host Council Candidate Forum

On February 28, PBG Watch, along with the South Florida 912 and the Palm Beach County Tea Party, Taxpayer Action Board and the Palm Beach Gardens Residents Coalition hosted a candidate forum for City Council election, featuring former Mayor David Levy and challenger attorney James D’Loughy.. Moderated by Daniel Martell, CEO of the PBC Economic Council, the candidates were asked a set of questions about current issues facing our city, some of which proved to offer a real choice between the candidates. Present for the forum (and keeping them honest) was former Councilman and now County Commissioner Hal Valeche, and Councilman and former Mayor Eric Jablin.

The meeting was kicked off by the leaders of the sponsoring groups, including Shannon Armstrong, leader of South Florida 912, Michael Riordan, President of Palm Beach County Tea Party, Kevin Easton, President of Palm Beach Gardens Resident’s Coalition, and Fred and Iris Scheibl, co-founders of the Taxpayer Action Board (TAB) and PBG Watch. Timekeeping duties were performed by Barbara Grossman.

Below you will find a summary of the event, with the questions that were asked, and a link to a video of that section of the forum.