What will the Salaries for Local Constitutional Officers be for 2023-2024?

The State of Florida's office of Economic and Demographic Research compiles information yearly for every county in the state--and once per year they publish a report which memorializes the salaries for elected constitutional officers statewide.

This report typically is published within the last two weeks of September.

This year, the report was completed and published this past Tuesday.

Folks should take the time to read it, as it is an interesting, enlightening read and it explains how the state sets the salaries and describes the formula(s) for how these salary levels are set.  This chart, below

at the line highlighted indicates the salary levels for Escambia County's locally elected constitutional offices.

I really enjoy publishing this yearly to my blog so folks that hate county commissioners but LOVE every other constitutional officer can see how the wages are set for all of us.  Many of these haters believe we set our own pay in some cigar-smoke filled back room somewhere.   And of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  

Like everything else in the country today--pay is increasing.  It is significant.

I'm sure there is one N-Word using, racist cartoonist in Pensacola (Andy Marlette), along with about 12-13 foil hat wearers on one facebook chat site, (Escambia Hate Watch) and possibly one malcontent, 2nd rate radio entertainment host (Andrew Tallman) and maybe even the "editors" of our fake, biased, untrusted  and failed daily newspaper (PNJ) that will be absolutely apoplectic over just our salaries--and not for any other elected officials.  Just ours.  They will be hair-on-fire mad, with bulging neck veins and bloodshot-eyes-- foaming around the mouth---about only the Escambia County Commissioners' salaries--------but not anyone else's on the long list.  It's quite fascinating.  LOL.

They all power-pound this blog daily, so they'll see this.  

To them all, I wish you nothing but a relaxing, enjoyable and peaceful weekend.  Maybe take a break from pounding on the keyboards in a lathered, frenzied way all weekend and get some sun instead? 

 😃👍

I know I'm going to have a "great" weekend!

Thurston Howell III knew the value of rest and
relaxation

Term Limits? Yes, Commissioners are Being Targeted

Agree is the unanimous answer I have seen in every town hall in which I have asked the audience "Should all elected offices have term limits?"

At every town hall I do in my district I always take a moment to do an unofficial "poll" of the audience on various topics of interest.  It is amazing the visceral reaction when I ask about term limits.  It is a sea of "agree" cards appearing in the audience when I ask "should the terms of office for U.S. Congress and Senate have limits?"

I always ask the same question about locally elected positions like the one in which I serve--county commissioner.  Same result--a sea of "agree" cards.

So it comes as no surprise to me that Representative Michelle Salzman filed a bill this past week to specifically limit the terms of office for County Commissioners around the state.  She and I have actually discussed it a number of times and I was aware she'd be filing the bill.  We are friends.

My prediction is it will pass, some form of it (perhaps with 12 years instead of 8 consecutive) will pass the legislature--and then I believe the voters will pass it on the November, 2024 ballot.  I believe it will easily exceed the 60% threshold necessary to revise the constitution.  And I say "good."  Because I support term limits.

But here is where I think a major issue lies:  If we are truly going to be dyed-in-the wool, puritan, strident adherents to the absolute and unconditional doctrine of term limits for all elected constitutional officers statewide--why take the easy, lazy road by simply limit them to school board members last session and now, apparently, county commissioners this time?  I mean, if we truly want to demonstrate that this is not somehow targeted toward only these two particular offices--why not simply add all elected county constitutional offices to this legislation?  And this isn't a shot at any other constitutional office or officeholder beyond the school board and commissioners---It is a fair question and one for which a cogent answer should be given by those bill sponsors who seek to limit terms of some, but not others.  And make no mistake, that is what this is, a limit on some and no limits on others, for expediency.  

Otherwise, we would see Senator Ignolia (a really smart and effective legislator)   and Rep. Salzman and the rest of them proudly and publicly add-in Clerks of the Court, Supervisors of Elections, County Sheriffs, County Tax Collectors, and County Property Appraisers to the term-limit, feel good, red meat legislation.  So why are they not doing it--I mean, they themselves are term-limited to 8 years, they want to limit commissioners and have already limited school board members---so why not the rest of the constitutional officers too if this is really, truly, only a puritanical, ideologically-driven piece of legislation and nothing more and not some shot at only one class of elected office, commissioners?

I know the answer, and they do, too.  They won't do it, they can't do it-- because if they did, they'd lose

A Wrench in the Works?

Could all five County Commissioners in Escambia County be up for election together in 2022.... or 2024??

Commissioners were notified late yesterday afternoon about a late add-on to a committee bill in Tallahassee that could have big consequences on next year's elections for county commissioners statewide, to include those of us elected to serve in Escambia County.

Senate Bill 90 is related to elections and election administration.

Some folks are opposed to it, many support it, and still others like some provisions contained in the bill and not other components in the proposed legislation.

The related bill, Proposed committee bill 21-05 expands upon SB 90 in a big way.  

And on the very last page of this house committee bill, a major paragraph was added having to do with  the way County Commissioners elected in single-member districts statewide will be elected going forward:  

"Notwithstanding the terms provided elsewhere in

 law, at the election immediately following redistricting

 directed by s. 1(e), Art. VIII of the State Constitution, each

commissioner elected only by electors who reside in the district

 must be elected and terms thereafter shall be staggered as

 provided in s. 100.041.

Section 26. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021."

In a nutshell, this language appears to stipulate that ALL commissioners representing single member districts (28 counties in Florida will be affected) must stand for election in the first election after the constitutionally-mandated redistricting necessitated by the decennial census every ten years--meaning for some commissioners their 4-year terms will be sliced in half.  In Escambia County, this would mean Districts 1,3, and 5 would have to stand for re-election again in 2022 -two years ahead of time- and once more in 2024-in order to achieve the "staggering" of terms indicated in Florida statutes.  If enacted, this would result in three commissioners locally being made to stand for election three times in the span of 4 years.  This would be required if this bill passes with this language in tact and if we complete the redistricting this year.  

Page 6 of the House Committee's analysis of the impacts of this provision of the legislation sums up the issue very succinctly:

"Effect of Proposed Change:  The bill provides that in the next election following each constitutionally required, decennial redistricting, a commissioner for each district must be elected again and terms will be staggered as provided in s. 100.041. This will divide in half the four-year terms of 2 or 3 single-district commissioners in each county, with even or odd numbered districts affected depending on the redistricting year. The change will not affect at-large commissioners or district commissioners elected county-wide."

County Commissioners from 28 Counties in Florida may be tremendously, negatively  impacted by a one-paragraph "add-on" to a House Committee Bill if that language, the final paragraph language in PCB 21-05, stands and becomes law.  Timing of the re-districting plans will become the new thing to watch...

Then it would all come down the the redistricting timeline.  

Under Chapter 124.01 (3) Florida Statutes, redistricting for County Commission districts "shall be made only in an odd-numbered years."  It is supposed to happen this year.  If it could not be completed this year, it appears it would have to move to 2023 to comport with Chapter 124--meaning the onerous provisions of SB 90's House bill 21-05-- would fall on districts 2 and 4 locally in the election the following year, 2024.

But wait just a minute, hold on.......Could redistricting really take that long though?

Uh, yes, it could......  

Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic--the US Census Bureau is way, way behind schedule in delivering us the data we will need locally in order to draw new district boundaries.  It looks as though we may not even get this data until late September or early October!  Taking into account the lost week in November to Thanksgiving, and the two weeks lost in December to Christmas and New Years--that would only give us about 9 weeks to do the research, have hearings, take input, hold joint meetings, meet and workshop with the Supervisor of Elections' staff,  advertise, and vote on the new boundaries.  

That is a really, really aggressive and compact timeframe that may not be achievable.

10 years ago when I was on the school board--the county, school board, and ECUA took about 7 months in total to redraw the commissioner, school board member, and ECUA districts in Escambia County that were ultimately adopted in September of that year.  It was a time-consuming, citizen involved, drawn-out process--but we did it right and it did not get challenged in court.  

If we rush it to meet a deadline--to complete this task in 2021 (the "odd" year stipulated in the state constitution) there is no telling what the ramifications could be if the new districts draw challenges or lawsuits.

So it will be interesting to watch, going forward, whether that language in SB 90 and it's related committe bill in the house 21-05-- survives the session.

If it does, the next thing to watch is this:  

When will counties statewide complete the redistricting process?   A rush-job in COVID-19 wracked 2021, or deliberatively with all data and plenty of time in  2023?