Headline and story in today's Miami Herald:
Miami-Dade’s Gimenez reshuffles County Hall, keeps department heads at their current salaries
BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN
mbrannigan@MiamiHerald.com
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez named five new department directors and two interim heads this week as he slashes the number of county departments to 25 from 42.
But don’t weep for those gold-plated bureaucrats left without a seat when the music stopped.
Most of the displaced department heads are staying on — at their current six-figure salaries – at least until the new department directors figure out how to revamp their refashioned empires in a quest for efficiency.
Headline and story from the Miami Herald, Aug. 30, 2009
Downsized Dade execs still make big bucksMemo to Mayor Gimenez: I believe you were elected on a platform of cleaning up county government. If this is how you're going about it, please explain how this is any different from what the other guy was doing. Thank you.
By JACK DOLAN AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN
Under fire for delivering double-digit raises to his closest advisors during a budget crisis, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez has defended himself by saying the perks were part of a broader staff reorganization that eliminated jobs and saved money.
But many of the executives whose jobs disappeared are still working for the county, in some cases at higher salaries -- raising questions about how much the cutbacks have saved taxpayers.
For example, the mayor said the 54 percent raise he gave in 2008 to his $125,000 per year director of communications, Victoria Mallette, was a bargain because she replaced two other executives.
"The truth is, if you look at the situation as it really played out, I saved the county, I don't know, more than $100,000," Alvarez told WQBA radio host Oscar Haza on Tuesday, two days after a Miami Herald report detailed raises to his top aides.
But both of the employees Alvarez said Mallette replaced, former Communications Director Paula Musto and her Assistant Director Louie Fernandez, are still on the county payroll.
They made a combined $315,839 in September 2007, when they left the communications office. They grossed $350,243 in their new county jobs in 2008, payroll records show.
The guy has been in office for 4 months, and has eliminated the tax increase of 2009, is forcing the unions into concessions, figured out the reorganizational structure. I think what was missed in the Herald piece was that this process will take a while, but, my understanding is that the salary reducutions, and further requests for letters of resignation (3 have already resigned by the way), will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. I think you should show just a little patience here. He has done a lot more in 4 months than I have ever seen in County Government. Again, it may seem like longer, but, he has only been there 4 months, and has done exactly what he said he was going to do so far.
ReplyDeleteWhen will he start laying off all those "old" directors who are no longer directing those new "new" directors? What a friggin shell game. Back in the old day, you were primed for a director's job from day one. There was no one holding your hand. You either were an expert administrator that knew everything or your weren't. There was no director/director training until they brought in Glazer-Moon as director of budget that was such a joke - making her a director designee while the outgoing director had a back office. Meanwhile everyone had nice salaries, secure pensions and budgets were balanced on the hard working rank and file who have mortgages, kids to feed and no secure pensions. Think about this when you are on your death bed.
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