Inside City Hall: The Raises Keep Coming

A Spotlight review found that salary increases added $7.6 million to city employees’ annualized pay in just six months. And that snapshot captures only part of the story.

Last week, the City of Miami began a new fiscal year with another record budget — including nearly $1 billion for the salaries and benefits of the people who work for City Hall.

With personnel costs consuming such a large share of the city budget, the Spotlight wanted to know: Who is getting raises, how large are they and how quickly is the city’s payroll growing?

To find out, we compared city payroll records from March 27 and Sept. 18, looking for changes in employee pay over those six months.

One thing jumped out: A lot of people got raises.

Among employees who appeared in both sets of records, 1,545 were earning more in September than they were in March.

Collectively, those increases added about $7.6 million to their annualized salaries.

And that’s only a six-month snapshot.

Many city employees receive raises at other points in the year, including across-the-board increases negotiated by their unions and annual raises tied to their employment anniversary dates — often recurring year after year.

So the Spotlight’s comparison doesn’t capture everyone who received — or will receive — a raise during the year.

Some of the increases we found were routine. Others were more complicated.

Many came through union contracts. Others accompanied promotions or additional duties. Still others were salary adjustments approved by City Manager James Reyes.

And sometimes one increase followed another.

Jennifer Ramirez, director of the city’s General Services Administration, received a 5% salary adjustment in May after her department took over responsibility for the city’s marinas. Assistant Director Anthony Barcena received a 10% increase as part of the same restructuring.

Then, in July, both received another 5% as union-negotiated anniversary increases to reward another year of city employment. 

By September, Ramirez’s salary had risen from $215,061 to $237,105 — 10.25% in a matter of months. Barcena’s rose from $172,748 to $199,524 — 15.5%.

Other large increases had different explanations.

Shawn Smith, an environmental resources coordinator, saw his salary rate increase nearly 16% while temporarily filling in for higher-paid department chief Quatisha Oguntoyinbo-Rashad, who city officials say has been temporarily reassigned to another department.

Virginia Bentley, a services coordinator in Department of Parks and Recreation, received 10% more while serving in an acting position at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex.

Other personnel records show how raises can build on one another.

Last year, Building Department Assistant Director Luis Torres was due a 5% anniversary raise when Assistant City Manager Asael Marrero recommended an additional 2.5 percentage points, bringing the total increase to 7.5%. Marrero cited Torres’ performance, experience and the need to retain him.

Torres received another 5% increase between March and September of this year, bringing his annual salary to $254,782, according to city payroll records.

Human Resources Director Angela Roberts also received a 7.5% raise.

In records reviewed by the Spotlight, Reyes acknowledged that he could not evaluate Roberts’ performance over the full review period because he had only taken office in January. But citing positive feedback from others and his own interactions with Roberts, Reyes authorized a raise from $253,780 to $272,814 — an increase of about $19,000.

Those individual increases are occurring against a much bigger backdrop: Miami’s rapidly rising personnel costs, including salaries, overtime, pensions, health insurance and other employee benefits.

Mayor Eileen Higgins took office in December promising a closer examination of city spending and appointed Reyes city manager the following month.

In March, the Spotlight found that salary spending had risen 41% over five years and employee benefits 62%, while the city workforce grew just 5%.

Salaries and benefits now consume about 77% of the General Fund, the city’s principal operating account.

If salaries and benefits were to grow at those same rates over the next five years, the city’s annual tab for personnel would reach roughly $1.4 billion.

Read more: Inside City Hall: Miami’s Pay Raise Machine

Miami’s newly adopted budget gives Reyes broad authority to establish salaries for executive and staff employees and to “fix, adjust, raise, or lower salaries.” It also allows General Fund reserves to be transferred “to effect salary adjustments.”

How often that authority is exercised remains unclear. City officials say they maintain no centralized record of employees whose salaries have been adjusted under the city manager’s discretion. 

Reyes has not responded to multiple interview requests from the Spotlight to discuss how such raises are determined and what limits or oversight apply. Communications Director Helena Poleo, the city’s chief spokesperson, has not responded to broader questions about how the city manager’s salary-adjustment authority is used.

While Miami’s new budget was approved in time for the start of the fiscal year last week, the city’s union contracts — which determine salaries and other benefits for much of its roughly 5,000-member workforce — remain unresolved. It is unclear when the City Commission will consider new agreements.

In the meantime, salaries and benefits will continue to be governed by the terms of the expired contracts.