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.
