Letter to the Palm Beach Post
:
At the upcoming September 2nd Riviera Beach Utility District meeting, the city's elected public servants will decide whether to pay themselves $1,000 month, each, to continue sitting as the board of the city's Utility District.
The five-member City Council and the non-voting Mayor
are already compensated far more generously than their equivalents among other similar cities in Palm Beach County.
If the 2015-16 budget is approved by the Council, each Council member will receive:
Stipend: $19,000/year
(more if you're the Council Chair or the Mayor);
Personal Assistant: $34,060/year
. Each Council member hand picks-without the involvement of HR-his or her own personal, part-time (30 hours/week) Legislative Assistant. No comparable city in Palm Beach County offers its board members this facility. FICA and city pension contributions for this pairing add another $15,858.
(Council members recently voted to allow themselves to receive pensions through the Florida Retirement System.)
Comprehensive health and dental care: $17,624 (member and assistant).
Travel: $7,500 each per year.
Also, sitting as the Riviera Beach CRA Board, members get an additional
$10,000
each for related travel per year.
Car Allowance: $9,000 each per year
. If members need to travel any distance outside the EIGHT- SQUARE- MILE city, a city owned vehicle is available.
'Promotions': $4,500 each per year
. Beneficiaries chosen by the member.
Waste Management provides another $15,000
per year each in 'Community Benefits'.
There are also line items for communications and employee development, which, together, add another $2,750/year.
Individual office expenses, subscriptions and memberships add $2,100/yr each.
On Wednesday, if Council members vote 'yes' on the added Utility District stipend($12,000/yr) and subsequently approve the proposed 2015-16 Riviera Beach budget ...
City taxpayers will be spending about $800,000/year to support the five elected members and ceremonial Mayor for their work as part time public servants.
No other comparable municipality in Palm Beach County comes even close to budgeting their elected officials to this level.
In Riviera Beach, it pays, literally, to be employed as elected 'public servants'. Help us inform taxpayers about this outrage.