Fall 2006 - City of Coral Springs

Voters to decide on City Charter amendment referendum
This November 7, Coral Springs voters will have one
referendum question related to the City of Coral Springs on
the ballot for their consideration, relating to compensation
paid to the City Commission. The question deals with two
separate issues, how compensation should be set and how
much that compensation should be.
The referendum question asks voters to decide if they wish
to allow the Commission to change Commission salaries
by ordinance rather than by referendum and if they wish to
increase the rates to $30,000 a year for the mayor and $28,000
a year for each commissioner. An ordinance is voted on and
passed by the City Commission, where a referendum must be
approved by the voters. In addition, the proposed amounts
in the referendum question were subject to a review by a
Compensation Committee and an outside accounting firm,
and were to be set at the lesser of the amounts above or
those recommended by the committee.
The Compensation Committee, comprised of eleven
Coral Springs residents, was established in July and worked
with Cynthia Borders-Byrd, CPA, an outside accounting
consultant. The Committee convened their first meeting
on August 10, 2006. After three meetings, they reached a
unanimous recommendation, that the mayor should be paid
$30,000 annually with an increase every two years tied to the
Consumer Price Index (CPI) and that other commissioners
should receive $28,000 per year, with the same limit on
annual increases.
The main reasons for recommending this charter
amendment was to provide parity for Coral Springs’ elected
officials with other local jurisdictions and to make future
changes to Commissioner compensation through ordinance.
Research by the outside accounting firm verified that Coral
Springs’ compensation was insufficient and low by local
standards, as can be seen in the table above.
Some Commissioners have also noted that officeholders
commit a lot of time to public service, and that equitable
Referendum Question
On the November 7 ballot, the referendum question to
amend the City’s Charter will appear as follows:
“Section 4.08 of the City Charter, ‘Compensation and
expense allowance,’ is revised permitting the Commission
to amend the compensation and expense allowances
for the mayor/commissioners by ordinance, subject to
the recommendations of an outside accounting firm
and a citizen-based Compensation Committee. For the
fiscal year 2006-2007, the mayor’s compensation shall be
$30,000 and the commissioners’ compensation shall be
$28,000, or an amount recommended by the accounting
firm and Compensation Committee, whichever is less.”
Yes for Approval No for Rejection
2006 Commission Salaries
(for Broward County cities with populations greater than 50,000)
City Population Mayor Commissioners
Ft. Lauderdale 171,344 $35,000 $30,000
Pembroke Pines 151,045 44,246 22,566
Hollywood 143,025 38,000 28,000
Coral Springs 126,852 18,441 14,752
Miramar 108,387 30,796 23,800
Pompano Beach 101,712 30,000 28,500
Sunrise 89,736 32,881 32,881
Plantation* 85,157 112,142 28,000
Davie 83,762 9,179 9,179
Deerfield Beach 75,160 30,410 25,380
Weston 61,042 13,000 10,000
Tamarac 58,711 29,000 25,000
Lauderhill 58,637 24,990 19,992
Margate 54,982 29,393 28,719
*Plantation has a “strong mayor” form of government, where the mayor directs
the day-to-day operations of the City, rather than having a City Manager.
compensation would help increase the pool of qualified
candidates and at the same time recognize the level of
sacrifice demanded of elected officials.
In proposing this referendum, Commissioners have
demonstrated that the City has accomplished much over
the past decade, such as winning two Florida Governor’s
Sterling Awards, being the first Florida League of Cities City
of Excellence, being recognized by America’s Promise as one
of the 100 Best Communities for Youth, and making Money
Magazine’s Best Places to Live list as the top city in Florida, all
while holding the tax rate steady as the lowest in the County
for full-service cities. During that time, Commission salaries
went up an average of 2% per year.
In addition, the City is well-known for its conservative fiscal
management, having been reaffirmed by all three Wall Street
rating agencies with AAA credit ratings in September 2006.
For the first forty years of the City, from the institution of
the City’s charter in 1963 through 2003, salaries for elected
officials were determined by the City Commission. In 2002,
a Charter Review Committee was convened that made a
number of recommendations to change the City’s Charter.
Those recommendations were ratified by voters in fiscal year
2003. As part of their proposed slate of charter amendments,
the Commission’s compensation was made subject to
referendum, rather than by ordinance, and was locked in at
the then current rates, with increases limited to the CPI.
In the end, the Commission decided that whether the
Commissioner salaries should be set by referendum or
ordinance was a question that the voters should decide.
For more information on this referendum and answers to
frequently asked questions, visit coralsprings.org/voting or
call 954-344-1065.
features
Data provided by Cynthia Borders-Byrd, CPA
Watch CityTV Channel 25 Fall 2006 • Coral Springs • 3