RIVIERA BEACH — When Riviera Beach City Manager Jonathan Evans submitted his assignment 17 months after he was fired from the same position in September 2017, part of the deal he negotiated with the city was a base salary of $200,000, $21,000 accrued from his previous salary.
Evans received that with a $190,000 settlement and a city public who stated that he was not fired but left by mutual agreement. Tens of thousands of dollars went toward his lawyer’s fees, with the rest going to compensate him for months of unemployment.
After hiring, Evans defended the massive pay raise.
“I that if given the opportunity, other people will see that the product of hard work will speak for itself,” he said in May 2019. “I don’t get there with the goal of looking for a document or a golden parachute. . I’m looking to go there to get the opportunity to paint, and paint as hard as possible, where we became the envy of Palm Beach County. “
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Three years later, Evans’ salary is $220,667 with a car allowance of at least $500 per month.
The Riviera Beach City Council has appointed its president to begin negotiations with Evans on a possible extension of his employment contract.
At first glance, this appears to be a significant salary for a city of 37,604 other people with an average household income source of $48,228, according to the most recent U. S. Census figures. USA This is particularly lower than the average U. S. household income source. UU. de $67,521 .
But Evans’ salary package is in line with the pay of senior Palm Beach County government officials, the Palm Beach Post found in a review of what executives earn in the county’s largest cities and towns.
Mayors would arguably hold the traditionally prestigious title, but city managers are ultimately the ones making the big bucks.
City managers, who oversee hundreds, if thousands, of workers and draw up budgets amounting to billions, earn gigantic wages that continue to rise.
Of the executives whose salaries were reviewed through The Post, one earns less than $200,000 a year.
Jupiter’s new city manager, Frank Kitserow, earns $225,000 on a $650 monthly car stipend. That’s a condiment to the $174,761/$500 per month car allowance you earned when you were acting as a city manager.
The Post researched and obtained data on salaries and car allowances for senior executives in the 11 palm B county villages, towns or cities with a population of at least 35,000. The newspaper also received salary figures and car allowances from the administrator of Palm B County, Verdenia. Baker.
Lake Worth Beach City Manager Carmen Davis earns the least among government administrators at $200,000 a year with a monthly car allowance of $462.
Palm Beach Gardens City Manager Ron Ferris, who held the position for 21 years, is the highest-paid city manager, earning $314,487 a year with a monthly car stipend of $650.
The average annual salary of city managers is $242,136. That average includes the $249,288 annual salary boynton Beach City Manager Lori LaVerriere earned before she was fired in April.
Baker earns more than any city manager, $322,525 a year, with a monthly car allowance of $500. The county government that Baker oversees is huge, with more than 5,000 employees, with a budget of $6 billion to cover the county’s 1. 5 million residents.
But The Post found that the length of the city, city or city is not similar to a manager’s salary.
Evans, for example, earns more than managers at Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach and Greenacres. Each of those places has more citizens than Riviera Beach’s 38,125 citizens, according to 2021 population estimates from the University of Florida and the U. S. Census Bureau. USA
Faye Johnson of West Palm Beach, the top sensible director of Palm Beach County’s most populous city, earns $269,294 a year on a $500-a-month car allowance. Two other managers, Leif Ahnell of Boca Raton with $303,480 and Ferris of Palm Beach Gardens with $303,480 of $314,487, earn more.
Based on the population overseen by managers, Evans earns more, with a $5. 79 reduction consistent with the resident.
Raymond Liggins of Royal Palm Beach, who now earns $224,900 after a recent 5% increase to manage a village of 39,144 people, receives $5. 75 consistent with capital. Ferris earns $5. 26 consistent with capital and Andrea McCue, Greenacres city manager, earns $4. 83 consistent with capita
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Salary is the only way to pay senior government officials.
Officials are expected to be in your domain, infrequently it turns out that they all at the same time, and car assignments have become a popular way to make sure the manager can get where they want to go.
Each director whose rebate was reviewed through The Post had some sort of car allowance, from the use of a taxpayer-funded government vehicle to the $800-a-month car allowance given to Wellington Village Superintendent Jim Barnes.
The $500 monthly car allowance that is part of Baker’s payment program is typical. Four of the permanent and acting administrators had a car allowance of $500 a month, and Davis’ $462 monthly stipend is just below that figure.
Beyond wage and car subsidies, senior government officials also offer extensive pension benefits.
Evans’ contract stipulates that Riviera Beach will pay him dues equivalent to 12% of his base salary. This money, deposited in a brokerage account, replaces Evans’ participation in a deferred payment plan. He is also obliged to participate in the State pension. formula in the category of senior managers.
While salaries and salaries are generous, the demands on checkpoints are high.
They are expected to oversee, or appoint someone to oversee, confusing contract negotiations with unions, lease agreements, facility construction, and systems to help citizens cope with demanding social situations, such as housing and employment.
They are expected to be available to citizens who pay their salaries, and they will have to serve those ends knowing that a handful of elected officials can fire them.
LaVerriere made it clear he understood this market when he said goodbye in April after nearly 10 years of work.
“It’s not a surprise,” LaVerriere said at the time. The world does not end. I’ll be fine. That’s what happens in the municipal control profession, so I don’t actually take it personally. “
Like LaVerriere, Evans is also familiar with the vicissitudes of elected officials. Now, in his time as Riviera Beach city manager, he was fired in 2017 after just six months of work.
His agreement after his firing prevented him from making a new claim, but in 2019 a new board voted to overturn that ban, paving the way for negotiations and Evans’ eventual return.
Since his hiring in 2019 he is entitled to raises.
He has won job reviews from city council members and remains popular with many residents, who credit him with moving the city forward on a number of problems that were once likely intractable, such as old, moldy municipal services and the need for new water. plant.
Evans is not unanimous among the five members of the city council.
Two, Douglas Lawson and Tradrick McCoy, voted against the contract that reinstated him, and the men recently voted against President KaShamba Miller-Anderson serving as a point of contact in negotiations over a contract extension with Evans.
Miller-Anderson president in 2019 and the user guilty of Evans’ contract for reinstatement.
McCoy said he thought Evans was making too much money and raised other considerations about the director’s leadership, criticizing him, for example, because the council’s district lines have not been redesigned despite significant demographic adjustments in the city.
Evans argued that it’s up to the board to ask him to oversee a redeployment plan, the direction of which he has yet to receive.
Lawson said he rejects the concept that he opposes keeping Evans’ term as city manager. He said he believes he is in a better position than Miller-Anderson to negotiate Evans’ contract, given his reporting in the business world.
Arguing that some other council member has the possibility to negotiate on behalf of the city, Lawson said he wanted to roll back the narrative that he opposes Evans.
“For my part, I will say publicly that I surely need to negotiate a deal that will allow us to remain Mr. Evans as long as possible,” he said.
Despite Lawson’s momentum, the board voted 3-2 to keep Miller-Anderson as a resource user for negotiations for a new contract with Evans.
Wayne Washington covers West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations. Advice by email to wwashington@pbpost. com.