Angela Corey’s employees to get $354K in ‘retention raises’ and ‘salary adjustments’

4th Circuit State Attorney Angela Corey's write-in "opponent" is being challenged in court

Jacksonville is on the fiscal brink.

Everything from the “emergency audit” that Mayor Lenny Curry commissioned in 2015, to the pitch for the pension tax made this year, says so.

Yet austerity isn’t the watchword everywhere in the city, even as rank-and-file city employees haven’t gotten raises this decade.

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In what some will see as a complete coincidence, and others will see as something else, 283 of 333 employees of the State Attorney Angela Corey will be given “retention raises and/or salary adjustments” totaling $354,500 for promotions or job duty changes.

While her office is a state and not a city office … the Jacksonville City Council auditor’s report notes an unfavorable variance of $130,278 through the first six months of the current fiscal year in her office budget.

Yet that’s immaterial to the raises being given to her team, says the state attorney.

“The total money depended on the salary dollars allocated last year by the Legislature and the attrition of employees within the office, e.g., upper level lawyers being appointed to the bench. Salary dollars that would have been used to pay those employees can now be used to retain other valuable employees and make their salary more competitive with the private sector,” asserted a statement from Corey’s office.

“All SAO money for salary dollars only comes from the State of Florida. We are dealing with state dollars and not a penny of city money is used for state employee salaries.”

As well, the statement adds, “the money allocated by the Legislature for salary purposes can ONLY be used for salaries of state employees,” rather than for functions like dealing with the sexual assault test kit backlog.

The statement also laid out the timeframe for discerning which employees get additional money.

“The retention raises fit squarely within the Legislature’s intent of how this salary money is to be used. As we have done in prior years, we wait until the end of the fiscal year in order to have an idea of how much money will be available for retention raises. We have been planning for and working towards a retention raise since January 2016. The management team has been meeting to finalize the amounts per person over the last several months. The final amounts were given to our business office on May 4, 2016,” claimed the statement.

Retention raises “keep good employees working for the State of Florida so that they do not leave and go into the private sector. We are especially looking to retain our lawyers in the three year-to-eight year range, but we value our support staff as well and they were given retention raises if they fit the criteria,” the statement continues.

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This might not be as noteworthy if we were not in a season of political chicanery.

As has been noted ad nausem in the Jacksonville media, the primary for the state attorney position was closed by a suspicious write-in candidate, whose paperwork was filed by Corey’s campaign manager.

Speaking of campaigns: 80 contributions made to Corey’s campaign account totaling $27,600 were made by assistant state attorneys or people listed with the office since the beginning of Corey’s re-election campaign. Many of these have been maximum contributions.

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Corey’s political opponents have panned these moves.

“After making campaign contributions to Ms. Corey, her employees are getting a cash infusion from state coffers — the latest version of the Dixie two-step. But sadly for Ms. Corey, cash distributions won’t keep employees from swimming away from a sinking ship, and it certainly won’t win back lost voters,” claimed Corey’s opponent, Wes White.

Melissa Nelson, Corey’s other opponent, offered the following statement.

“At a time when families in the 4th Circuit are still facing a slow economic comeback, and when the city of Jacksonville is in financial crisis, this move is so disrespectful of the hard work of taxpayers. I know well being a prosecutor is a tough job, but retaining talent is done by demonstrating to your team that you approach the job as a call to service and devotion to the ideals of our Constitution. It’s not about getting rich on taxpayer dollars.”