While Broward County employees will be taking furloughs to help balance the budget, county commissioners Tuesday are poised to raise the salary range for the director of public works.
The salary range boost coincides with a plan to hire a new public works director who had a mysterious — and lucrative — exit from his last public sector job.
County Administrator Bertha Henry proposed lifting the salary range for the job up to $211,000 and paying Thomas Hutka $183,000. He will earn about 10 percent more than the current employee who is filling in on that slot after the last permanent public works director took a job in county administration.
Henry said Hutka will earn less than his counterparts in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach who earn $194,794 and $198,631.
But Will Vargas, a union leader, questions the timing of the pay hike.
"How can they be hiring an employee at a higher rate when we are going to have to lose money on furlough days?''
Broward didn't struggle to fill the slot — nearly 100 people applied. But unlike in his last government job, Hutka isn't getting a contract that includes severance.
Hutka quit his city manager job in Port Huron, Michigan in 2006 citing personal reasons, according to the Times Herald, and later attributed his exit to a spat with business leaders about development. Though he didn't have the support of several council members, they quietly changed his contract to give him a one-year severance package plus perks, the newspaper reported.
Since then, Hutka has been passed over for at least a handful of government jobs nationwide, according to various newspaper articles. Hutka, who currently works for an engineering firm, could not be reached for comment today.
Broward County didn't give Hutka everything he asked for, Henry said. He won't get a contract or a temporary housing allowance, she said, though the county will pay for moving expenses. He is scheduled to start in Broward Aug. 18.
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