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Highlands Today

County Makes $150,000 Salary Offer To Wright

Michael Wright

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: May 6, 2008

SEBRING — Michael Wright, the heir apparent to retiring Highlands County Administrator Carl Cool, will be offered a salary of $150,000 per year to become the county's new chief executive officer.

The five county commissioners unanimously decided on Tuesday to offer Wright that salary, which would be about $14,000 above the salary of Cool, a county employee for more than 30 years, the past 17 as administrator.

The $150,000-per-year offer, though, is not written in stone. Rather, it is the salary within the proposed 9-page contract which was sent to Wright in Tallahassee by e-mail Tuesday afternoon.

Wright will now negotiate the terms of his contract, including salary, with a three-person negotiating committee appointed by the commissioners. Negotiating for the county are county Commissioner Don Bates, county Attorney Ross Macbeth, and Highlands County Tax Collector Charles Bryan.

Commissioners said they hope to have an agreement with Wright on his contract by Thursday or Friday so that he can be officially hired at the next commission meeting, May 13.

The hope is that wrapping up the contract of the commissioners' unanimous choice to replace Cool will be finalized as soon as possible, so that Wright can start soon after Cool's May 31 retirement date.

Wright, now the assistant city manager in charge of transportation and development for Tallahassee, also will get a moving expense stipend as well as a monthly car allowance. Those provisions, like the salary, remain open to negotiation.

Commissioners agreed to offer Wright his choice of a county car for county business or a $600-per-month car allowance payment, and a relocation stipend of $5,000. The relocation payment is not a firm figure, as $5,000 was recommended by Commissioner Andy Jackson as "a starting point."

The three-member county negotiating team must conduct all negotiations with Wright in open, public meetings. They plan to set public meetings for Thursday afternoon and, if needed, on Friday afternoon during which they would negotiate by phone with Wright.

All such phone conversations have to be on a speaker phone so that citizens at the negotiating meeting could hear the conversations, Macbeth said.

Commissioners also agreed to put in the contract that they will give Wright an annual performance review and an annual salary review, with no requirement to give him a yearly pay raise.

Commissioner Barbara Stewart said the annual reviews would be aimed at not only reviewing Wright's performance over the previous year but also giving him a list of the commissioners' expectations for his work in the coming year.

Bates recommended offering a $150,000 salary primarily because that is slightly above Wright's current salary of $145,000 with the city of Tallahassee. The other four commissioners agreed with that figure.

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