Pay Day: Green Cove Springs versus Maine et al.

The Green Cove Springs City Council recently renewed the contract of City Manager Danielle Judd and awarded her a salary increase (which includes changes to pension contributions and car and phone allowances) from $113,988 to $124,727.

According to the Ballotpedia.org website, Judd now makes more than the governors of the following 19 states:


Alabama, $119,500
Arizona, $95,000
Arkansas, $86,890
Colorado, $90,000
Idaho, $119,000
Indiana, $111,688
Kansas, $99,636
Maine, $70,000
Minnesota, $119,850
Mississippi, $122,160
Montana, $108,167
Nebraska, $105,000
New Hampshire, $121,896
New Mexico, $110,000
North Dakota, $121,679
Oregon, $98,600
South Carolina, $106,078
South Dakota, $104,002
Wyoming, $105,000


Granted the comparison may be flawed because the governors’ salaries might be augmented by perks not mentioned here. But even if Maine Gov. Paul LaPage was fed a lobster omelet for breakfast, lobster salad for lunch and two steamed lobsters for dinner every day for an entire year, it would not bridge the gap between his $70,000 paycheck and Judd’s. Not even close.

Let’s take a look at Maine: More than half the size of Florida, 1.3 million people, 15,000 state employees, $8.3 billion state budget. Governor is civilian chief of Army and Air National Guard. Governor earns $70,000. His wife works as a waitress.

Now Green Cove: 5,400 people, a pool and a pier. Not even its own fire department. Manager earns $124,727.

Not only is there a vast difference in scale between the two jobs, but also in stress. The governor of Maine, like the governors of many other states, has to deal with a fractious state legislature. By comparison, the Green Cove Springs City Council is robotic and perpetually unanimous when there’s a vote.

Please note that this argument is not personal. Danielle Judd, as far as I can see, is doing a pretty good job. And Paul LaPage may well be the worst governor in the nation. It’s about the position and what it’s worth. Every flawed decision is based on a study, and defenders of the city will argue that studies have shown that Judd’s pay is on a par with that of other Florida city managers.

And that just points to a bigger problem. Clearly, the people of Florida have been suckered into overpaying their managers (and maybe a few other categories of public servant, too). I don’t know how or when this happened, but one need only look at the above pay list to know that it did happen. By comparison, private sector salaries around here are damnably low. What gives?

Once Judd moves on, as she reportedly intends to do in a year or so, the city should hit the reset button. Advertise nationally for city manager to be paid, say, $75,000 a year. And if someone named Paul LaPage applies, don’t hire him. Please don’t.

Peter Swanson, who has lived in Green Cove Springs since 2002, was a newspaper reporter for more than 20 years, covering politics and government, including four New Hampshire Presidential primaries.