Orange County leaders quietly approve 25% pay boost for themselves

As Orange County leaders work on finalizing a county budget for the next fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, they’ve gone ahead and approved a nearly 25% raise for their own publicly funded salaries, boosting county commissioners into the six-figure salary range.

County commissioners voted 4–2 in a split vote for the salary boost, with commissioners Nicole Wilson and Emily Bonilla voting against it.

Mayor Jerry Demings, who was present for the rest of the board meeting Tuesday, was noticeably absent for the vote after first voting against the proposal in July.

A county spokesperson told Orlando Weekly Demings had “a very important personal matter” to attend to Tuesday afternoon, leaving Vice Mayor Maribel Gomez-Cordero to lead the rest of the meeting.

With this vote, the board’s six county commissioners will earn $113,608 annually, effective Sept. 17, while the mayor will see nearly double that: a $227,812 annual salary.

This makes Demings the highest-paid Orange County public official, behind only Sheriff John Mina, who is paid a salary of roughly $229,000. (Ironically, Mayor Demings served as sheriff himself prior to being elected county mayor in 2018.)

Why did they approve such a seemingly hefty boost? After Commissioner Emily Bonilla first pitched higher commissioner salaries last year, citing the sacrifices they take on to serve the public, the county’s human resources department this year put together an analysis of salaries in Florida’s most populous counties to see where commissioners in other counties were at.

Essentially, their analysis found that Orange County commissioners are paid less than public officials in similarly sized Florida counties, such as Hillsborough and Palm Beach, which use different formulas to calculate pay.

“Orange County, in terms of population, is the fifth largest county [in Florida],” Lisa Snead, Assistant County Administrator, told the board of county commissioners in July. “However, if you look at the wages of the commissioners, we are at the bottom of that.”

In Hillsborough, Palm Beach and Broward counties, for example, which follow a state formula, county commissioners are paid $113,608 annually already.

That state formula, which Orange County commissioners voted to adopt, is essentially population-based. They wouldn’t get a 25% pay raise every year, under that formula, but because Orange County’s playing catch-up with those others, that’s what it’d amount to this year.

Even commissioners in some other smaller, neighboring counties (like Osceola and Seminole) are currently paid more: $98,623 and $102,132 respectively.

Based on HR’s analysis, county staff came up with four options to present to the board of commissioners and Demings in July, on of which included keeping the current formula as is.

In the board’s first vote in July, the board voted 5-2 for the option that would give them the highest raise, with Demings and Bonilla voting against it.

When Bonilla first brought up the idea of a salary increase last year (earning her flak from landlord apologists and others), Demings said the optics and the timing was “all wrong.”

Demings didn’t explain his vote against the salary boost (higher this year than Bonilla’s pitch) in July. And, as previously mentioned, he was absent during Tuesday’s discussion.

Bonilla previously told Orlando Weekly  that while she wasn’t necessarily opposed to the raise, she voted against the boost largely because of a separate funding request for her office that she felt had been dismissed by Demings and county staff.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, Bonilla also expressed dismay with lumping commissioners’ percentage salary increase with the mayor’s.

Amid increased tension in the room, she made a motion to carve the mayor out of the proposed increase for a separate vote — but because no one seconded it, the motion failed.

Commissioner Wilson, who voted in favor of the salary increase in July, said on Tuesday she didn’t like the idea of voting on the issue with Demings absent.

“I’m not comfortable making this determination in a moment that the mayor is not here for the discussion or for the vote,” she shared candidly.

Commissioner Mike Scott motioned (as he did in July) to approve a change to county code that would pave the way for that salary boost, with the motion seconded by Commissioner Christine Moore.

The annual fiscal impact of the salary change will amount to $179,652, according to Snead, the assistant county administrator, making it just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things.

There was no public comment during the public hearing on the change ahead of the vote Tuesday evening, although Cynthia Harris — a 2022 candidate for the District 6 seat on the county commission, who lost to sitting Commissioner Mike Scott — blasted county leaders over the issue earlier in the day.

“If you can resolve giving yourself a 25 percent raise and find it in the budget, you can resolve the homelessness problem that we have here in this community, the high crime that we have in this community, the food insecurities that we have in this community,” said Harris.

“I think it’s unfair,” she added, “and a slap in the face.”

Homelessness in Central Florida, home to the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” has increased over the last year, with major housing cost increases during the pandemic surpassing wage growth.

The county’s taken incremental steps to address unaffordable housing issues, largely through partnership with private interests and developers.

But the ongoing problem is a sore spot for communities that feel left behind, as the county considers throwing millions of additional tax dollars into tourism marketing and costly projects pitched by venues like Camping World Stadium and the sprawling Orange County Convention Center.

Snead said the 24.58% salary boost this year will simply align the mayor and commissioners’ pay “with the market.”

The boost approved Tuesday (altering city code) will in the future limit commissioners’ salary increases to the percentage increase in pay given to other non-bargaining (i.e. non-union) employees.

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This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2023.