Bill Johnson is making about $258,000 and the Seaport Director Designee Juan Kuryla is making $290,000.
Apparently Bill didn't get the Beacon Council slot so we have what amounts to over half a million in salary to run the port. And those damn librarians are making $70,000. Commissioner Audrey Edmonson asked in August:
“Do we have two employees over at the port who make over $600,000 a year?”
I guess Audrey is right, until one of them gets canned.
23 comments:
What an incredible waste of money. And Johnson and Kuryla were both appointed to their $250k+ government jobs without job advertisements, job interviews, or competition. Cronyism at its worst.
Don't we also have quite a few Deputy Mayors each earning upwards of $200k.
Bill Johnson was never qualified to head the Port. If there had been national search conducted Johnson never would have made the list of the top 100 candidates. No wonder the Port and Miami-Dade County is top heavy with overpaid and under performing staffers.
Port of Miami is a self-sustaining operation with expenses paid by revenue. This is not general fund money. It still doesn't look good but don't think these are tax dollars.
We have 5 deputy mayors, who also serve other functions (chief of staff, planning director, budget director, etc.)
Before, we had 12 Assistant County Managers, a COS, a planning director, a budget director, who were all making $200K or above.
That means we have 5 people now were there were 15 before!!! I know the facts don't work for you, but, they are the facts..
As to the Port, that is an enterprise division. The salaries come from Port fees, not taxpayers. In addition, Kuryla was offered the director job for the Port in Jacksonville, and actually took less to stay hear.. I think reasonable people can disagree about this, but, you should state all the facts instead of hiding the facts that cut against your arguments......
Insider
To the anon above, stop spewing that nonsense about 12 Assistant County Managers.
When Gimenez took over, there was one County Manager (Alina Hudak), one Assistant County Manager (Ysela Llort), and one Special Assistant (Howard Piper). That's THREE senior management staff/ACMs when Gimenez took over, not 12 or 15.
If you want to call executive assistant/errand boy Henri Sori an ACM, we will raise the number to four.
When Gimenez took over in the summer of 2011, he kept crony-in-chief Hudak as his County Manager/Deputy Mayor Manager and added four new Deputy Mayors at higher salaries.
So Gimenez hired five senior management staff where there were previously three or arguably four. He then shuffled incompetent cronies Llort and Sori to plum Department Director jobs at the same or higher salaries.
Of course, all of this was done without a competitive recruitment process.
Gimenez merely changed the titles of the old cronies and added new cronies.
If anyone has any doubts about the senior management staffing levels that Gimenez inherited, they can check out crony queen Hudak’s memo that was distributed before Gimenez took office: http://www.scribd.com/doc/52937115/Staffing
The great reporter Francisco Alvarado also wrote a piece about staffing and salaries just before Burgess and Alvarez were ousted. Read it here: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/03/setting_the_county_record_stra.php
The Port of Miami is not so "enterprising" as it loses $1million a year. It has such a heavy debt load - in the hundreds of millions - with such a poor likelihood of paying it back that Moody's just downgraded its bonds.
Kuryla is the most qualified person to lead the port. Why do you think Jacksonville offered him a very high salary and spoke so highly about him?
Research the maritime industry and you will see that he is actually underpaid.
The port is self-sustained and does not depend on tax payer money.
I know it is easier to just criticize, but it is also good to know the facts and make educated comments. No?
The Port of Miami may be "self-sustained and does not depend on tax payer money", as Anonymous said above, but those funds come from surcharges on cruise tickets, no? If the Port is not run properly, the business of the cruise lines suffers. I imagine that the cruise lines have some input into who gets what job at the Port. I doubt that it matters to the cruise industry whether their ships leave from Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, or any other port - it's all about profit, after all. So while the funding for the Port may not come from tax dollars, I think the bonds are back-stopped by the taxing power of Miami-Dade County. Therefore, we, as taxpayers, do have a dog in this fight. The Moody's bond downgrading should perk up a few ears because it means that the Port will pay higher interest rates on future bonds that it issues, which will lead to higher surcharges and on and on until the cruise companies pull up stakes for a better place to originate cruises from.
No need to guess on PortMiami's prospects. Read for yourself the Bloomberg Report:
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-10/investors-punish-miami-port-tripling-debt-to-expand-muni-credit.html
And here's a snippet:
"Even as Miami’s port bets that capital improvements such as dredging will add revenue, Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating to four steps above junk last month, citing the growing debt burden. Bondholders showed concern by pushing the extra yield over benchmark debt close to the highest since February.
Moody’s cut the seaport’s rating one level last month to A3. By 2017, net revenue from the port won’t be able to cover its bonds and debt issued by Miami-Dade County on its behalf, said David Jacobson, a Moody’s spokesman in New York. The port may have to use reserves, Jacobson said.
The seaport’s municipal debt -- which includes revenue bonds and general obligations issued by the county -- is about $260 million, according to county documents. The county has also loaned the seaport $325 million."
Interesting how that report says that revenue will increase 10% per year through 2017. I sure don't see the general economy doing that well - where are these feasibility study authors getting their numbers??
Shipping companies commit years in advance to ports of call. Have any of the post-Panamax ships that we are blasting the port channels for committed to dock in Miami?
What is the plan for growing by 10 percent per year? The Port does have this plan to create a Port City by filling in Biscayne Bay and creating more land. Lol. Climate Change sea level rise will overtaken the whole island within a few decades.
PortMiami just sold bonds to intelligent investors. They balked. They consider PortMiami a risk AND they demanded PortMiami pay them a higher rate. PortMiami is run by a bunch of bozos. These same bozos are planning to install illegal LED billboards aimed at the tourists and residents on MacArthur Causeway. Illegal.
A video clip of Commissioner Barbara Jordan giving the mayor a reality check.
By the way, whatever numbers are on paper do NOT reflect the 5% medical fee (TAX in my opinion) forced upon all county workers, nor the eight unpaid furlough days, nor the 3% contribution to FRS. The information used pits the directors salary against a Librarian 1 and then that's called the average.
And that transparency link, there are people listed at the library who've been retired for years and one man is dead. Does this list mean that he's still on the payroll?
For your entertainment pleasure...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mYVDz93z84
Gimenez needs to be placed under arrest for crimes against the taxpayers.
Gimenez is arrogant and imperial and like many despots he might end up headless.
Didn't the 5% health insurance deduction disappear last year? If I remember correctly, the deduction was eliminated last year and every county employee was given a net 5% increase.
No, to the anonymous above the 5% remains, employees have not received the 5% and will not be receiving it and more concessions are expected.
To Anon who disagrees with "self-sustained Port" in case you did not know, the port is known as the "cruise capital of the world" with close to 4 million passengers yearly. Reason why more cruise lines want to sail out of Miami.
Numbers don't lie. Get your facts straight.
Pay and Benefits eats up too much of the budget.
Kuryla has a shady past- personal bankruptcy, office love affair resulting in divorce, reassignment from previous public works post to remote field location due to improprieties, embarrassing incident in Dubai, inspector general investigation over port perspective tenant, aggressive behavior toward law enforcement at traffic stop, getting foreign travel junkets for commissioners, mayor, and cronies.
Cruise ship traffic is DOWN. Read the Moody's report. The Port is in trouble financially.
If the port were such a great business why its cash flow is shaky. Why did the County lend money to the Seaport? Whys was the port downgraded by Moody?
Post a Comment