In the face of withering criticism, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the City Council on Monday backed off from a plan to give themselves a 21 percent raise and instead agreed to a 6 percent pay hike.
In brief comments to commissioners earlier today, Dyer said the 21 percent increase was justified by market comparisons to their counterparts in other counties, but that it sent the wrong message.
“On any objective basis, the salaries are certainly justified,” Dyer said. “But upon reflection, while the economy is still recovering, I think the percentage of the increase probably sends the wrong message to the public.”
But at the 5 p.m. budget hearing, Dyer offered an amendment that reduced the proposed raise to 6 percent: a 4 percent salary adjustment, plus the 2 percent raise the city administrators have proposed giving all Orlando workers.
The proposal for a smaller pay raise emerges just a week after Dyer voted with the council’s majority to approve the bigger salary hikes.
Click here for the story in the Orlando Sentinel.
