Pat Salerno gives parting raises to his Coral Gables faves

• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

Among the last things he did — probably before he wrote that long congratulatory letter to himself that was distributed on the city’s enewsletter (more on that later) — Coral Gables City Manager Pat Salerno doled out raises to his favored employees (read: cronies).

According to a series of emails obtained by Ladra, Commissioner Pat Keon on Friday — from New York, where she is on holiday with family — asked interim City Manager Carmen Olazabal what salary adjustments had been made in the last two weeks. Olazabal responded that Salerno — who resigned abruptly last week and must have had a million other things he could have been doing — completed eight evaluations, including her own, and doled out seven merit raises ranging from 2.5% to 4%. Only Naomi Levi, who has been with the city for just the six month probationary period, got no increase.

“Pat did consult me and I signed off on [Economic Sustainability Director] Cindy Birdsill and [Human Resources Director] Elsa Jaramillo‘s evaluation and increase form due to  their exceptional work performance,” Olazabal wrote to Keon.

Of course, Olazabal herself got a 4% raise so who was she to argue? Who signs off on hers? This might be the first hint that commissioners did, wittingly or unwittingly, select a Salerno plant to run the city until they find someone else, which could take four to six months. Dios los cuide.

City rules allow only employees who receive a 4.75 rating or higher in their evaluation to get more than the 2.5% standard merit increase, up to a maximum 5%. Guess who got 4.75 ratings on their evals? Olazabal, Birdsill and Jaramillo, who reported just that to Olazabal at 5:24 p.m. Friday.

I guess the only surprise here is that they didn’t get 5%.

The others who got 2.5% raises are Finance Director Diana Gomez — who I keep hearing had trouble in the city of Miami, where she came from — Public Affairs Specialist and Mayor Jim Cason‘s alleged script writer Belkys Perez, Chief Compliance Officer Lori St. John and Development Services Director Jane Tompkins.

Maybe they aren’t all cronies. But Ladra can’t help wonder what some of them might know.

And I also wonder if commissioners, who meet next week to discuss the permanent replacement for Salerno, are going to let this stand.

Keon must have asked for a reason.

  Carmen Olazabal, Pat Salerno