Port Orange's city manager and attorney will be getting raises.
The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to give City Manager a raise equal to the percentage city employees received this year and next, not to exceed a 7 percent total. He currently make $140,000 annually.
The council also approved a raise for City Attorney Margaret Roberts. She was making $126,000 a year before leaders gave her a roughly $10,000 bump to be split between retirement benefits and salary. Before Tuesday's vote, she had been getting the same raises as staff during her 17 years with the city but had fallen behind what other local city attorney make.
For instance, while former New Smyrna Beach City Attorney Frank Gummey's gross salary of $243,751 made him the highest paid in-house attorney in the county following 13 years with the city of roughly 26,000, his replacement Carrie Avallone was hired at around $125,000 three months ago. In Ormond Beach, where the population borders on 42,000, 25-year veteran City Attorney Randy Hayes got a 12 percent bump last fall to bring his salary up to more than $140,000.
Mayor Don Burnette was the sole vote against her raise.
"I'm a little nervous when we start messing with salary ranges outside of what we're doing for everybody else," he said, noting that by increasing Roberts' earnings, he felt leaders were "feeding the beast."
Johansson, who's been with the city about two and a half years, doesn't have an automatic raise in his contract. Instead, he requested City Council occasionally discuss performance-based raises.
"I felt it necessary that you all take a good look at my performance," Johansson told leaders before their unanimous vote. "Don't give me money because of cost of living allowance. Give it to me because I deserve it, or not."