Council renews city manager’s contract and approves 6% raises for remaining charter officers

The City Council approved a renewed employment agreement with City Manager Carlos Bahia and took action to align the two remaining charter officers’ compensation with the general‑employee increases approved for FY2026.

Mayor and council summarized substantive contract updates: clearer termination language, a shorter severance payment timeline (payment within 10 business days after termination without cause), revised cause language (with a requirement that, if a manager is arrested and later found not guilty the city will pay back pay or severance), increased vacation accrual to four weeks, clarification of retirement contributions, an increase in the professional development allowance from $5,000 to $7,000 and other housekeeping changes. Council also reviewed a market analysis comparing similar Florida cities by population and budget and proposed a market salary figure of $211,000 for the city manager (the proposed figure would be inclusive of the 4% COLA and 2% merit originally discussed for other employees).

Council then voted to grant a 6% increase (4% COLA plus 2% merit) effective Oct. 1, 2025, to the two remaining charter officers (city clerk and city attorney) and asked the city attorney and HR to prepare contract language aligning their minimum annual increases with general nonunion employee increases; council instructed staff to return contract language for formal adoption. The motion to renew the city manager contract and to authorize the charter‑officer raises passed on the record.

Action: Council adopted the city manager employment agreement and approved a 6% effective Oct. 1 increase for the remaining charter officers, directing staff to amend contracts to reflect minimum annual increases in parity with nonunion employees and to bring those amendments back for formal approval.