CRESTVIEW — It takes money to keep Okaloosa County’s largest city, also its county seat, moving and meeting its growth needs.
More important, it takes people. Of the city’s $29.6 million budget for fiscal year 2015-16, 40 percent goes to salaries.
For the city’s 237 employees, $7.8 million will be paid this fiscal year in regular salaries. Another $100,200 will be paid to the city’s elected civil servants. With benefits, overtime and holiday pay included, Crestview’s payroll is about $12 million.
See a chart comparing Crestview salaries with those of other municipalities>>
Of that, less than $50,000 goes to the mayor and five city councilmen, still making them the highest-paid of their peers in the county’s municipalities.
And with good reason, the civic leaders say.
While their jobs may be officially “part-time” on the city’s books, actual hours put into the position often surpass a typical 40-hour work week.
FULL-TIME, PART-TIME
“With the changes in the growth of Crestview and the many challenges we face every month, I spend a minimum of 40 hours a week on the job,” Mayor David Cadle said. “It stays pretty busy.”
Though Crestview has a weak-mayor, strong-council form of government, the mayor’s duties differ from Cadle’s counterparts in other county municipalities.
“The reason the mayor takes on a higher position here is he is directly responsible for public safety,” Cadle said. “None of the other mayors have that type of responsibility.”
“To me it’s not a part-time job,” JB Whitten, one of the city’s two newest councilmen, said. “I spend a lot of time working city council issues. You don’t need to make it that large a job. I do it because it is my responsibility to the citizens of the city.”
City Council vice president Joe Blocker said though he had been asked many times over the years to seek a council seat, he couldn’t consider it while he had a full-time job.
“People tried to get me to run for 30 years,” Blocker said. “I said it’s not a part-time job, so when I retired, I up and lost every bit of the sense I had and I jumped in it.
“It is not part-time. To serve the people the way they expect to be served is not a part-time job, but I enjoy it.”
TIME COMMITMENT
Blocker said many expenses are not covered by a council member’s $5,040 annual salary, and that he and his fellow councilmen absorb them without reimbursement.
County-level and regional League of Cities meetings and training seminars regularly take council members to destinations often hours from Crestview, Blocker said.
City department heads are in a similar situation, Blocker said.
“They attend lots of meetings and association meetings, and they don’t get paid for it,” he said.
Whitten said neither he nor any of his colleagues on the dais sought their duties without understanding the time commitment they require.
“It is demanding, but no one would run for office unless you want to do it,” he said.
“You go in with your eyes wide open and you have to put a lot of time and effort into it, but you choose to do that.”
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BENEFITS BY THE NUMBERS
City of Crestview workers receive these benefits in addition to their base salaries:
•12 paid holidays
•12 sick days
•40 hours vacation for up to two years’ service
•80 hours vacation for two to six years’ service
•160 hours vacation for more than six years’ service
By union contract, Crestview firefighters receive more annual vacation days than other city workers
Source: City of Crestview
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SPECIAL REPORT: Crestview elected leaders' salaries surpass neighboring cities