with that kind of salary

As of 2011, comparable city managers salaries, the smallest city on the list has 97,000 residents. Your welcome Citizen for doing the reporting for you. SMH.......... Tallahassee, Fla. $208,707 Hollywood, Fla. $205,129 Savannah $190,575 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. $184,995* Hampton, Va. $184,200 Greensboro, N.C. $179,500 Durham, N.C. $178,000 Richmond, Va. $178,000 Roanoke, Va. $170,000 Chesapeake, Va. $165,000 Portsmouth, Va. $164,800 Winston-Salem, N.C. $164,172 St. Petersburg, Fla. $152,736 Augusta $136,359 Columbus $132,583

A package of this size is so out of scope with the job responsibility it is absurd! Of course, most of the people on the commission see themselves as big fish, so they will approve this since it helps their own image of how important they are. Meanwhile, we have no new city hall, Truman annex sits vacant, homeless have taken over our streets, the channel widening issue is not resolved, taxes from the biggest business in town are not paid, and our quality of life gets worse year after year so a few connected families can make money. I am sure once this is shoved through, we will learn that the rest of the city staff needs raises as well. If it were not my tax dollars being flushed, it might be funny.

“These men (government officials), in point of fact, are seldom if ever moved by anything rationally describable as public spirit; there is actually no more public spirit among them than among so many burglars or street-walkers.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Is there some new definition of the term 'equitable'?

The city charter mandates that the city manager be the highest paid city employee

As always, the highly compensated City Consulaire, Shawn Smith, is in great part the City's problem, never the solution.

Shawn Smith is the second highest paid city employee. So to retain his own lofty salary, Shawn Smith has to keep the city manager's salary at no less than $180,000.00 + pension and benefits (= well over $200,000.00 per year each).

Did the city commission really expect their City Consulaire, Shawn Smith, to "negotiate" against his own self interests????

There are at best 25,000 citizens of Key West (counting the military) and the salary for city manager and city attorney are each over $180,000.00 + pension and health and welfare

The yearly salary of the Governor of the State of Florida is $135,000.00

So now we understand what the city commission considers the new definition of "equitable negotiation"

kakistocracy; noun

government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power. Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Etymology: 1829, "government by the worst element of a society," coined on analogy of aristocracy from Gk. kakistos "worst," superl. of kakos "bad" (which is perhaps related to the general IE word for "defecate") + -kratia "rule of," from kratos "strength, power, rule" (see -cracy)