To the Editor:
When are the three new Sumter County commissioners (Craig Estep, Oren Miller, and Gary Search) planning to cut their own salaries? During their campaigns, they accused the previous commissioners of voting themselves, what they claimed to be, an excessive pay raise of 9.8 percent. They said that such an increase was outrageous, especially for a part time job. Yet, I have not seen a single one of these newly elected commissioners volunteer to roll back their pay to previous levels. Where is their outrage now? They seem to have conveniently forgotten about their harsh criticisms and campaign rhetoric regarding the pay hike, which they insinuated would be rescinded if they were elected. Each of the new commissioners – Estep, Miller, and Search – quietly and hypocritically accepted the increased salary with no objection. During the Estep/Miller/Search campaign, many taxpayers commented in the Villages-News.com about the pay raise. For example:
“Commissioner salaries will rise 9.8 percent!! Drain the swamp!!”
“Crazy raise! Did Social Security go up 9.8 percent this year? No!”
“I don’t know about you, but the last raise I got was 3 percent – not 10. Must be nice to be in charge of your own paycheck.”
The new commissioners must now show us that their words don’t speak louder than their actions when it comes to their personal self-enrichment. They need to roll back the pay raises that they aggressively campaigned against, but then accepted. It does not take any kind of special vote to do that. The Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research specifies the law regarding the salaries of elected county constitutional officers: “Each individual commissioner is authorized to voluntarily reduce their own pay rate,” in this case back to the 2019-20 fiscal year level, just like they demanded of the prior commissioners.
Due to COVID, every small business is struggling to survive, and a considerable portion of the county’s working population has lost their income source. Rolling back their salaries to the previous year would still provide these commissioners a comfortable income. Unlike many of their constituents, the commissioners have not, and will not, experience any interruption in their pay due to the pandemic. To deceitfully accept the large pay increase that they chastised the previous commissioners for taking is inexcusable. It’s also a slap in the face to struggling small businesses and unemployed workers. The new commissioners should do the right thing, particularly during the current budget crunch. Commissioner Miller’s recent vote to explore ways to tax Sumter County’s citizens is especially vile. Leadership is about setting examples and our new commissioners need to practice what they preach by voluntarily reversing their inherited pay raises.
Eunice Parks
Bushnell
