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Enterprise Florida increases payroll by $1.2 million in six years, much of it in executive office

By Arek Sarkissian, Naples Daily News, Fla. on

Published in Senior Living Features

Enterprise Florida, the state's public-private economic development partnership under scrutiny for excessive spending, increased its payroll by more than $1.2 million since 2011, with much of the increase coming from a beefed up executive office and an increase in the number of executives, salary information released Wednesday to the Naples Daily News shows.

The agency previously has withheld salary information, claiming it didn't have to follow Florida's public records laws. But after protest by the Daily News that state law creating the agency specifically required it to disclose the information, Enterprise Florida released details of salaries for two fiscal years. The agency will release salaries from other years once it's compiled, said spokesman Mike Grissom.

"After thorough review, it has been determined that in order to maintain total transparency, Enterprise Florida will be releasing the records you have requested," Grissom wrote in an email. "Currently our administrative office is compiling that data and when complete I will pass it along."

The number of people inside the office of the Enterprise Florida president grew by eight people from 2011 to June 30, and the payroll doubled, the salary information shows. At the end of fiscal year 2011, four people worked inside the top office, earning salaries totaling $538,788. That increased to 12 people as of June 30, with salaries topping $1 million, according to data provided by the agency.

The salary information, which only includes regular pay and not other compensation like bonuses or other payments, also shows the agency spent at least $5.6 million annually for salaries as of June 30, a $1.2 million increase from the $4.4 million spent in 2011. The number of employees on the payroll increased over those years. There were 74 employees in June 2011 and 96 as of June 30.

Those salaries include the addition of two executive assistants and an associate to Enterprise Florida's president, who also serves as the state's Secretary of Commerce. Former director Bill Johnson created positions for his former PortMiami staff. He gave his longtime friend and PortMiami contractor Diana Gonzalez a newly created position of Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation for a salary of $111,692. He also made his former PortMiami assistant, Lisa Ross McMillion, his Enterprise Florida Chief of Staff for $135,618 a year, the salary information shows.

Enterprise Florida could only provide the data between those two fiscal years Wednesday, which show the eight new positions in the executive office were added under former President Gray Swoope and Johnson. Swoope left the agency in March of 2015 to start his own business and Johnson left on June 24.

Gov. Rick Scott, who is the chairman of the executive board that controls Enterprise Florida, announced Johnson's resignation in the weeks after the Legislature ended this year's session without money for the agency's incentive fund. Scott had requested $250 million in taxpayer dollars to help Enterprise Florida lure companies, but it was rejected by House leaders who referred to it as corporate welfare.

The salary information provided shows annual pay for the president decreased since 2011. Former President John Adams, who resigned in February 2011, was paid $436,870 a year. Swoope, Adams' predecessor, was paid $275,000. Johnson was paid $265,000. But the information provided by the agency does not show bonuses and other pay for the executives.

Scott announced on the same day he announced Johnson's resignation that Enterprise Florida would undergo a review by one of his former agency chiefs to find $6 million in savings. The largest savings former state Department of Children and Families Chief David Wilkins found in the review was from cutting 27 Enterprise Florida employees.

The agency's board agreed Friday to cut 26 positions -- 12 actual employees and 12 vacant positions. One of the remaining cuts were made by the retirement of Senior Vice Presidents Al Latimer and Louis Laubscher, who both made $140,653, which is $10,000 more than what they made in 2011, the salary information shows.

 

Enterprise Florida's board last week also voted to save $767,858 by closing four international offices, $771,558 by ending events and sponsorships, $620,175 by canceling 15 outstanding professional service contracts, and $242,758 in terminated leases. The agency already has saved $150,000 by adopting cost-savings in the state's travel policy and $200,000 on office expenses. Another $1 million in state money will be saved by tapping that amount the agency now holds in cash.

Related stories:

* Exclusive: Enterprise Florida executive pay increased 75 percent in six years

* Enterprise Florida executive board recommends nearly $6 million in cuts, including jobs

* Enterprise Florida leaders consider adopting recommendations to cut millions from budget

* End taxpayer funding of Enterprise Florida, incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran says

* Enterprise Florida president created top positions for two former PortMiami colleagues

(c)2016 the Naples Daily News (Naples, Fla.)

Visit the Naples Daily News (Naples, Fla.) at www.naplesnews.com

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(c) Naples Daily News, Fla.

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