A Day With A Betsy Condon: What A Commissioner's Day Reveals About The Pay Raise Debate
Aligning Their Pay With State Law Would Would Triple Their Salaries
It is all but certain that the November ballot will feature a new attempt to increase our county commissioners' pay.
The Charter Review Commission, which is appointed by the county commissioners, will place a measure before voters to have the commissioners’ pay “align with state law.”
That rather ambiguous language has led to considerable confusion about what it means, how it would affect residents’ taxes, and why this topic is important enough to take up again, despite having failed resoundingly twice in recent years.
On a Thursday in February, Clay News & Views spent an entire day shadowing County Commissioner Betsy Condon. We extended the invitation to all of the Commissioners, but only Condon accepted. Kristen Burke politely declined, and Renninger, Compere, and Sgromolo did not respond to multiple emails.
Condon’s day was packed, starting with a meeting of the Northeast Florida Regional Council and ending with the county’s first budget workshop for the 2026-27 budget. In between, there was a luncheon and plenty of time for candid conversation about what it’s like to do the job of County Commissioner in Clay County.
What we learned from Commissioner Condon that day helped clarify some of the questions people ask when they hear the commissioners are up for a pay raise once again.
The answers below are not quotes from Commissioner Condon, but conversations with her were helpful in understanding the issues.
Are The Commissioners Asking For A Pay Raise?
Yes and no. Only Jim Renninger has openly petitioned for a pay raise during a meeting of the Charter Review Commission. Betsy Condon spoke at a subsequent meeting and advocated for a discussion of revoking the county’s charter, which would increase commissioner pay while also saving taxpayers millions in taxes the county would no longer be able to levy.
The members of the Charter Review Commission are appointed by the County Commissioners, which has led some people to assume they were appointed to secure a pay increase for the commissioners. While this is possible, there’s no evidence that any particular member was appointed for this specific reason.
Why Are Commissioners Asking For A Raise When Some Teachers Didn’t Get One This Year?
The answer is that the County’s budget is totally separate from the School Board’s budget. The County Commissioners have no influence or say in how much teachers make this year or any other year.
What Does It Mean To Align Commissioner Pay With State Law?
Right now, the County Commissioners make roughly $37,000 per year. This amount is dictated by our county charter. Any county that doesn’t have a charter must use a formula from state statute that determines the county commissioner via a population-based formula.
Under this formula, our county commissioners would earn over $100,000 per year if the ballot initiative passes in November. This would effectively triple their pay overnight.
Why Do The Commissioners Get Paid $37,000?
In the early 2000’s, County Commissioner Christy Fitzgerald and Public Works director Arthur Ivey were investigated by the state and the FBI for fraud and illegal dumping of hazardous waste.
The ensuing scandal ended with Arthur Ivey being indicted on multiple felonies, and taxpayers left footing a nearly $9 million bill to clean up the mess.
As a result, a citizen petition was placed on the 2008 ballot to limit commissioners’ pay in response to the fraud. The full story behind the fraud can be found here:
Isn’t County Commissioner A Part Time Job?
The answer to this isn’t an easy yes-or-no. It is surely not a traditional 9-5 job. The Commissioners, for the most part, don’t keep office hours. They are in the office sometimes, when meetings or business dictate it.
This question is the main reason we reached out to each County Commissioner, hoping to spend time with them and better understand what they do day-to-day.
Some of the commissioners have included photo-ops and special events as part of their job, while others include only actual meetings and workshops.
What we learned from our time with Betsy Condon is that the job is as time-consuming as the commissioner wants it to be. Per Condon, she strives to be as responsive and attentive to the people in her county as she can be and provides transparent answers whenever possible.
This can take the form of answering emails or text messages, but frequently she meets with people in person as much as she is able.
The better question is: what do the people of Clay County want the job to be? Do we want full-time career politicians, or productive members of our community serving in a part-time role to guide and oversee the county government?
Would A Smaller Raise Be More Appropriate?
If you believe the job is part-time and warrants roughly 20 hours of work per week, the commissioners currently earn $34 per hour. This is more than double the state’s minimum wage of $15.
If you believe the job is full-time, then the pay is roughly $17 per hour. The answer to this question depends on what the job should be.
If you account for inflation, $37,000 in 2008 is roughly equivalent to $55,000 today. It might be a more palatable argument to increase the cap on commissioner pay to account for inflation, since it has been nearly 19 years since the cap was set.
But even a smaller increase is not guaranteed to pass, as voters have overwhelmingly rejected previous ballot initiatives to increase commissioner pay. One of those initiatives was for a smaller raise than the one being proposed now.
Why Punish The Current Commissioners For Misdeeds That Happened In The Past?
The frozen pay for the county commissioners isn’t a punishment; it was a measure taken by the voters to ensure future commissioners weren’t simply taking the job for the pay.
While certainly frustrating for the commissioners to be paid less than their counterparts in other Florida counties, the voters of Clay County ultimately have the final say on what the position merits in pay. And since 2008, the voters have repeatedly decided the pay should be $37,000.
Why Is Does The Ballot Language Not Include The Dollar Amount Of The Salary Or Raises?
The ballot language is decided by the members of the Charter Review Commission. Some of the commission members, in recent meetings, openly called for leaving the dollar amounts off the ballot because they believed the measure would be more likely to pass.
Online reaction to the omission of the dollar amounts was vocal, with some people interpreting the CRC as trying to lie to and fool voters.
The reasoning used by the CRC may be foolish at best. A poll was recently conducted in our partner Facebook group, The Clay County Pulse, to see whether the lack of financial detail would make voters more or less likely to vote for the measure. Ninet-six percent of the respondents said they would be less likely to approve a measure that did not include the financial details.
Is there An Opportunity For Public Input At The Charter Review Commission Meetings?
Yes, the CRC meetings are open to the public, and they are required to allow public input. Additionally, they are required to hold an official “public hearing” before finalizing the ballot measure and its language.
The county’s website provides a list of future meetings and the corresponding agendas. The next CRC is on March 16th.
Does Anyone On The Charter Review Commission Stand To Gain From Increasing Commissioner Pay?
There are no county commissioners on the CRC, and no one on the CRC has currently filed to run for county commissioner in this election cycle.