Council approves 4% market, 3% merit increases for exempt staff after concerns about transparency

The Fort Myers City Council voted to approve a 4% market adjustment and a 3% merit increase for exempt employees, applied retroactively to the first full pay period in October 2025. Marlon Scott, the city's director of human resources, said the Bolton compensation study found exempt employees were about 4% behind market and that the city is implementing the adjustment based on that finding.

"The Bolton study said that the exempt employees is 4% behind," Scott said when describing the study's recommendation. Council questions focused on how the study was executed, whether exempt employees had received position reviews and what the timeline is for reclassification work. Council then voted on the item; a roll-call recorded six 'yes' votes and one 'no' (Councilperson Watson opposed), and the motion carried.

Before the vote, Amber Ware, speaking for exempt staff during the public-comment period, said employees had not been given access to the Bolton study documentation or to position-review materials and asked for greater transparency. "To our knowledge, there has been no meetings other than the presentation they had in 2025," Ware said, urging that staff share findings and classification reviews with affected employees. Ware also described employee concerns that some long-term positions are misclassified and said some staff expected raises to align with union-covered general employees.

Human-resources staff said consistency checks and meeting schedules with department heads remain underway to implement the study's classification recommendations. Council directed staff to continue department-level reviews as the classification portion of the study is completed.