The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday quietly approved a $9,135 raise for City Manager Matt Morton on the heels of his second-year anniversary with the city and a performance evaluation that netted him strong and slightly better marks than last year despite a blistering set of numbers from Council Member Victor Barbosa.
Barbosa had called for Morton’s firing just weeks ago, shortly before turning in an evaluation that added up to an “improvement needed” characterization of Morton’s performance, making it a distant outlier from the four other evaluations, two of which gave Morton perfect scores. Despite Barbosa’s animosity toward the manager, he voted for the raise when it came up as part of the consent agenda on Tuesday, along with several other items. It’s not clear that Barbosa, who’s not known to study thick agenda books, realized that a raise to the man he wants fired was part of the consent items. (See: “Palm Coast City Manager Matt Morton’s Evaluations at Year 2: One Brutal, One Good, 3 Glowing or Stellar.”
It’s unusual that a chief executive’s raise would be included in the consent portion of the agenda, which is reserved for routine items. City and county executives have been known to place items they didn’t want discussed too publicly on the consent agenda (Morton’s predecessor and the previous county administrator were masters of the ploy), though any member of the council or the public may request that such an item be pulled from consent for a fuller discussion. No one did at Tuesday’s meeting.
The item was not discussed at the previous week’s workshop, either. The approved minutes of that meeting say that “Mr. Morton provided a brief overview of the item” at the workshop. Actually, he did not. Holland announced the agenda item, turned to Renina Fuller, the human resources director, who was “here to stand by to answer any questions” from council members. There were no questions. The council members never discussed the salary raise.
The raise amounts to 6 percent: 3 percent is a cost-of-living “adjustment” (inflation in the South region actually jumped 4.4 percent over the past year), and a 3 percent merit pay increase, bringing Morton’s base salary to $161,385, up from $145,000 when he started. He received a $7,000 raise in January. He had turned down that raise the previous June, citing a wage freeze and the pandemic. For comparison’s sake, County Manager Jerry Cameron’s current base salary is $166,000.
Yet the council itself never said a word about setting those percentages. It followed Fuller’s recommendation: “The Human Resources Director recommends that the City Manager be treated the same as all other employees with regard to the annual cost of living adjustment and performance-based merit increase.” But when the council approved Morton’s contract two years ago, it had specifically deleted the clause in his contract that went to that effect, and did so at then-Mayor Milissa Holland’s insistence.
The reason: the council approves raises for staff, but does not set those percentages. The city manager does. So by letting the city manager’s raises be set by whatever the staff gets, it would in effect be allowing the manager to set his own raises, even though the manager answers only to the council. Holland was specific about not “giving that type of leeway of determining pay increases” to the manager. (See: “Council Agrees to Contract With New Manager, But Not to Annual Raises Tied to Employees.”)
And yet that’s what the council, including Holland, acceded to on Tuesday, without discussion, leaving its vote to count as a ratification of the administration’s recommendation. For Holland, Tuesday’s vote on the consent agenda items turned out to be her last official vote as mayor. She resigned later that evening.
Morton’s total compensation now amounts to either $189,813 or $186,585, depending on whether he is taking the 2 percent match from the city in deferred compensation. The sum includes an annual car allowance of $4,800, a 13 percent contribution of $20,980 to his 401a retirement account, a $420 communication allowance, and the $3,228 in deferred compensation. It does not include the $27,600 health insurance premium the city pays annually (that was the total amount for 2020) nor, judging from recent council meetings, hazard pay. For all that, Morton’s pay and benefit package remains well below the $218,300 his predecessor was being paid 21 years ago (without health insurance premiums). In inflation-adjusted dollars, that package would be worth $269,041 today.
Ann says
What happened to the City of Palm Coast Wage Increase “FREEZE”? Is this why the employees of the City of Palm Coast weren’t awarded wage increases? SMH Someone needs to look into things down there at the City Hall. A lot of unfairness going on and certain individuals being awarded special privileges.
Rob says
Agreed. I work for the city and it not how hard you work anymore it’s who you know now.
Marvin says
Just go to the same church as them and you will receive the same blessing. Stop complaining lol 😂
Charles says
Great moral boost for the employees, more like a kick in the mouth.
palmcoaster says
Thank you Flagler Live for keeping us informed!
Lnzc says
It must be nice to make that kind of salary and the rest of the taxpayers working for $100,000 less
Barbara says
I’m finding more and more that the political powers are out of control with using tax payers money to line the pockets of its people.
Stretchem says
Just some perspective…. our city manager’s compensation is eight times that of the median citizen income. Additionally, it’s only a few dollars short of the Vice President of the United States’ salary.
Little ole’ iddy biddy Palm Coast, Florida. Yeah, I’d shove my family in a car and move 3,000 miles across the country too! Public servant my ass. It always has been and always will be about the money.
Ernie says
All the City employees I see doing all that swale drainage work and cement work and maintaining the parks and driving big trucks and bulldozers and back hoes , etc…( which requires precision work and talent ) and is dangerous; have gotten no raises. I read that they also do not have the best health care plan. Does Morton have the same plan? Do the city workers have the city contributing the same percentage to the workers 401 retirement? I can imagine the morale of the city workers must be pretty low with having this Morton raise in their face. Not only the raise; but; why is he worth that much money as a salary? What does he do? Seems like he is in a lucrative club along with the other recently promoted higher ups. Again; all this happening while they freeze wages for the little guys who are actually doing all the heavy lifting. Who is standing idly by who can actually do something about this? This is such a smack in the face to all those workers I see as I walk my dog on the trails and the workers in the swales. Really despicable.
Also says
Swales and parks? What about the utility department that provides Palm Coast with essential water supply. And keeps it sanitary by maintaining a functioning sewer system. From the treatment plants to a hole fixing infrastructure.