At its regular meeting Thursday, the Gainesville City Commission voted 6-0, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent, to appoint Interim City Clerk Kristen Bryant in a permanent capacity, filling the last of the city’s charter office vacancies.
The commission also agreed to move forward with a 2.5% budgeted pay increase to all charter officers, which includes Bryant, alongside City Manager Cynthia Curry, City Attorney Daniel Lee, Interim City Auditor Brecka Anderson, and City Director of Diversity and Inclusion Zeriah Folston. The raises come after the commissioners presented the officers with their annual performance reviews earlier in the meeting. They achieved an average rating of 4.3 out of 5, which “exceeds job standards,” according to Human Resources Director Laura Graetz.
Appointment of city clerk
The commission had elected to wait until it selected a permanent city auditor before making any decisions regarding the clerk. After hiring auditor Stephen Mhere in December, the clerk remained the only vacancy to fill.
The commission had three avenues to fill the position: to hire Bryant, who had taken over as interim after Omichele Nattiel-Williams resigned in July; to conduct an external search for candidates, as they had done to find Mhere; or to disband the position altogether, seeing as the city’s charter, the legal document that defines the structure of the city’s government doesn’t formally require a city clerk.
“I don’t remember the last time we had a full slate of permanent charter officers,” Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said. “That is gratifying, and I think very, very good for the city as an organization.”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman had initially proposed and supported this elimination in May 2023, but voted Thursday in favor of keeping Bryant, to promote continuity for a government still trying to regain its footing after the restructuring of its relationship with GRU.
“I think the number one thing I wrote down is we need to bring some stability to this government, which has undergone very rapid changes in a very short period of time,” Eastman said “It’s a reform that would make sense in the future, but I don’t think it makes a lot of sense right now.”
Commissioner Reina Saco said she would have preferred making Bryant permanent.
“I don’t think we’d get someone as qualified as her if we could search, but as we just saw with the search for our auditor, it can come with a price tag — a very hefty price tag,” Saco said.
The mayor will negotiate Bryant’s contract and have it signed before the commission meets again on Jan. 18. Her salary will not exceed the established midpoint for the position, which was $129,336 as of June 2023.
Potential concerns about promotions
With GRU considering further cuts to the government services contribution — money allocated by the authority for general government use — Commissioner Ed Book questioned whether it wouldn’t be wise to reconsider the raises in a couple of months.
“I’m concerned about some of the collateral impacts that we may have, depending on what occurs with the authority over the next few months,” Book said. “If they were to take some action in the middle of a fiscal year, those could be devastating for us.”
However, he decided to vote in favor regardless, after considering the average increases for other city employees — approximately 4.6%, according to Graetz — and the testimony of his fellow commissioners.
“I would caution us against waiting and seeing what happens because I don’t think we will achieve clarity,” Ward responded. “We passed the budget with this in there, and I understand exactly what you’re saying, Commissioner Book. I don’t disagree with you except that I’m not going to vote that way because I don’t think we’re going to achieve clarity.”
The commission will meet again Jan. 18.
You can contact Henry DeAngelis @hdeangelis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @HaDeangelis.
Henry DeAngelis is a third-year journalism major and the City and County Commission reporter for the Alligator. In his free time, you can find him on the basketball court or deep in a good book.
