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Armando Martinez
(Note: Articles Appear in Reverse Chronological Order)
Tab 8
That 2 percent additional, merit raise was what was under discussion Thursday, and what Tucker
and Rogers resisted.
“This is a huge amount of money for an employee,” Tucker said, referring to the 5 percent raise
he’d already received. “You’re doing a good job, there’s no doubt about that. A $5,000 increase
in his salary, it actually comes out, with all the benefits, to 10.1 percent increase in his salary, or
the money we have to pay out for him just for the $5,000 increase over the last year’s money.”
The city’s finance director corrected Tucker, in that the calculation Tucker was presenting
included the merit amount, not just the cost of living amount. But Tucker’s point was made: a
salary increase at the top end of the sale is disproportionately higher than a salary increase for the
rank and file.
Two people—Bunnell developer Mark Langello and Perry Mitrano, the city’s solid waste
director, in an unusual pitch on behalf of his boss, who’d approve Mitrano’s merit raise—spoke
to the commission in support of Martinez’s raise.
And Martinez made his own pitch. “It’s very important for me to tell you that in the amount of
years that I have been here, I’ve never, ever asked for anything without the employees being
compensated first,” Martinez said, a statement that, given the commission’s $7,500 gift last
year, was only half true. “Whatever I am getting now is no different than whatever the other
employees are eligible for. As a matter of fact when this issue came up, I tried to really stay
away from it, but my position is that what I am entitled to is for consideration.”
Robinson thought the 2-2 vote meant that Martinez’s raise had carried. Sid Nowell, the city
attorney, corrected her. Martinez’s pay remains, for now, at $102,438, a 13.8 percent increase
over his starting base pay—still well above the sort of increases most workers, if employed, have
enjoyed over the past four years.
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