County Administrator Search Extended; No Raise For Touart

April 3, 2013

The Escambia County Commission will extend its search period for a new administrator, while George Touart will stay on board as interim without a pay raise.

Commissioners voted Tuesday night to give the county’s human resource office another 90 days to search for an administrator, with a progress report due in a month. In an attempt to lure qualified candidates, the upper end of the salary scale for the job will be bumped 10 percent, to $165,000 per year.

A five person committee — comprised of one nominee per commissioner — will review the applicants and narrow the field before presentation to the full commission.

Commissioners hope to hold interviews and offer the administrator post to someone by August, with an aim of having them on the job by October or November — just after a new budget year begins.

Tuesday morning, during an agenda review meeting, Chairman Gene Valentino and Commissioner Wilson Robertson pushed to drop “interim” from Touart’s title and give him a $10,000 raise from his current $130,000 salary. That would put him in line with former County Administrator Randy Oliver’s $145,000 per year.

Touart Tuesday night said he told commissioners to forget about any raise.

Comments

6 Responses to “County Administrator Search Extended; No Raise For Touart”

  1. well on April 4th, 2013 5:08 am

    Hang in there Mr. Touart. Not everyone in the county suffers from optirectanitis.

  2. liberty on April 3rd, 2013 9:28 pm

    its rediculous in todays economy where ” civil servants ” make more money than comparable jobs in the private market… am i the only one who feels this way??? just look at all levels of gov’t employees, they work 15 -20 years then retire at 80% of their salary and we are stuck with paying them for 40 years, othe rstates across country are having trouble with this its called unfunded mandates,…states cannot continue to pay these crooks so much for so long,.. i personally feel they are legal thieves,….all the while raising taxes for this and for that ……..the local and state level should mandate a 25 yeaqr retiremnet a service then only start to pay this retirement out when the employee reaches the age of 62-65 …like social security……and we as taxpayers do not have to pay these people fro 40 years and go broke as a state doing it.. It used to be that you worked for the civil service ” to serve ” and for the job security, but sacrificed salary for what you could make in the private market,….now they have it all salary,security and huge retriement packages,….and taxpayers are going broke all over the country trying to keep up…….its rediculous, backwards, and wrong…vote them all out is what i say, and vote in proven private markets success stories who are not trying to get rich on the taxpayers, who already have been successful in business or private ventures and who understand the proper roles of “civil servants” ,…..to serve the public, not steal from them….chc

  3. Bill on April 3rd, 2013 9:05 am

    Watch your back George,. The nlast time I had a conversation with Comm. Valentino, his opinion of your honesty wasn’t that high. He could be setting you up for the fall he was waiting on. Or birds of a feather! You know the rest.

  4. citizen on April 3rd, 2013 7:45 am

    Here we go. Let’s give this guy a raise since we fired him before and that should make up for our mistake. While we’re at it, let’s take that stupid title off. We all know he’s here for at least ever how long it takes him to suck his retirement out of the State. Bot were we stupid. Why did we do George like that. I’ve done so much painting for him in the past. I’m sorry George. I’ll make my end up on a fresh coat of paint to one of your homes.

  5. molino jim on April 3rd, 2013 6:49 am

    Gee– how do you spell full retirement. Maybe there is hope some day for the county– Gene would like to be Lt. Gov. for the state and after this term Wilson can go home. Escambia county beats any TV program for fun and games.

  6. Jane on April 3rd, 2013 5:56 am

    This is why they want a 4 cents gas hike…so they can raise salaries when these guys make more than they should already!