Paid Like a Queen and Wants More, But Is She Really Necessary?
Commission Auditor Role Appears To Duplicate Comptroller Duties
The County Commission Auditor, Heather Boucher, believes that she is not being fairly compensated. She is so unhappy with her pay that earlier this month she threatened to quit unless she was given a substantial raise.
But closer inspection reveals that she is filling a vaguely defined role that may very well be unnecessary.
Heather Boucher has worked for the Clay County government since 2021. As the County Commission auditor, she started at a yearly salary of $91,000. She now makes $114,240, which is an increase of 26 percent over five years. Not bad for government work, and great considering not many other county employees have been afforded the same luxury.
But her annual salary doesn’t tell the whole story. The county also pays a hefty sum into two separate retirement accounts for Boucher, as well as health, dental, and life insurance. Boucher’s total compensation cost to the taxpayers is $190,768.
The average salary of an employee for the Clay County Government is $55,000. Boucher receives $48,032 in yearly county contributions to two retirement accounts.
Boucher’s retirement contributions alone are close to the average county employee pay of roughly $50,000, and $10,000 more than the current county commissioners’ salary.
If Boucher’s request is granted and her pay is bumped to $165k, her retirement contributions would also increase as they are a percentage of her base pay. This would bring the county’s total cost for the auditor position to over a quarter of a million dollars—$264,000 a year.
But in the weeks since Boucher’s ultimatum, people inside and outside the county government have begun to question what work Boucher actually does.
Per the Florida Constitution, auditing of county government falls under the purview of the Office of the Comptroller. Clay is a Charter County, and the charter specifies that an auditor position must exist, even though it is redundant. The job description also specifies that the person filling the role must be a CPA, which Boucher is not.
Given that most of the official functions of auditing the county can’t be done by the position Boucher holds, what does she actually do?
Per a list provided by Boucher to the County Commissioners, she is responsible for a variety of duties:
DOGE’ing the county and all of its departments.
Responding to audits, both external and from other agencies like FEMA, FDOT, etc.
County AI implementation—policy implementation and oversight
Staff turnover reduction.
Green Cove Springs Community Redevelopment Agency. Boucher is the chairwoman
Strategic Plan reporting validation
Looking closely at these, you might notice that only one of the six has much to do with auditing. So, how much work do the items on the list really entail?
DOGE
In general, Clay County hasn’t done much cutting of “excess” from its budget. The biggest savings have purportedly come from consolidating high-level positions as employees left or retired. Nearly $1 million in savings have been gained via position consolidation, but there’s no evidence that Boucher or any other auditor played a role in making those savings a reality.
Given that the position of commission auditor is redundant, as the official responsibilities now fall under the comptroller, the best way for the auditor role to contribute to money-saving efforts is to eliminate it.
Per the county charter, the position can’t be officially eliminated, but the county can choose not to fill it. This would lead to $190,000 in annual savings.
Responding to Audits
Simply put, the Commission auditor does not have the authority to respond to external audits on the County's behalf. Nowhere in the job description, county charter, or state statute is that role given to the auditor.
A response on behalf of the county would traditionally fall to the chair of the county commissioners, the county manager, or the county lawyer. If Boucher is doing this, she may land herself in hot water.
AI Implementation
Sources in the county say AI is being treated with caution, and county managers are developing processes in conjunction with the County Commissioners.
There is no evidence that Boucher is involved, and, based on her published degrees and certifications, she does not appear to have any knowledge or expertise in AI policy or use.
Staff Turnover Reduction
This simply isn’t an auditing function. Staffing issues and turnover should be addressed by the county manager and Human Resources.
This is another area where Boucher appears to have no qualifications relevant to the task.
Green Cove Springs Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)
Boucher is, in fact, chair of the Green Cove CRA. This quasi-governmental body meets once every other month. Yes, just six times a year.
Boucher is reported to have listed this as a time-intensive responsibility, but it is unclear what tasks, if any, she handles between the infrequent meetings.
Strategic Plan Report Validation
Report validation can’t possibly be a full-time job. Surely it is important and needs to be done. This task is the only one on Boucher’s list that is close to actual auditing, but is it worth a $44,000 raise?
Luckily for Boucher, she is known for one key role she fills—baking. Boucher is an accomplished baker and is known for lavishing tasty treats on her co-workers.
While it is unclear what Boucher actually does and whether that warrants her plump pay and benefits package, another issue is her evaluation scores.
Clay News & Views was able to obtain Boucher’s evaluations from several years of her work for the county. As you can see from the chart, her scores vary widely depending on which county commissioner is grading Boucher’s work.
Only commissioners Burke and Renninger gave Boucher high marks. The other current commissioners and former Commissioner Mike Cella rated Boucher as an average employee at best.
Looking at the scores, it becomes clear why Boucher wanted to negotiate a new deal with either Burke or Renninger.
There's a consistent and striking split among commissioners. Burke always gives 5s, Renninger gives 4–5s, while Condon and Compere hover at 2–3. Rather than indicating poor performance, the scores may reflect highly uneven relationships and expectations.
Multiple commissioners (Cella, Condon, Compere) across both 2023 and 2024 independently raised the same concern: they don't know what Boucher is working on, audits are delivered late or without prior discussion, and requests sometimes go unaddressed.
Condon went from 2s across the board in 2023 (citing missed deliverables) to 3s in 2024, explicitly crediting Boucher with completing all agreed-upon projects on time. To her credit, this suggests Boucher is responsive to clear expectations when they're set.
Commissioner Condon called the commission auditor role a "contracted employee/role" whose value needs better public justification.
Compere questioned whether Boucher was performing all the duties a county auditor is responsible for (internal controls, fraud prevention, and budget involvement).
No review suggests incompetence. Several suggest that the position's mandate isn't clearly defined or consistently enforced.
What Would You Do?
If you were in James Renninger's shoes, who volunteered to negotiate with Boucher, would you grant her request? Could you honestly justify a $44,000 increase in expenses to taxpayers for a position that may very well be redundant?
Renninger is clearly sympathetic to the person in the role, more so than some of his compatriots on the county commission. While his compassion for the people employed by the county is commendable, salary negotiations would be better handled by someone with human resource skills who can remain professionally detached from the individual and the role.
And since the position reports directly to all of the commissioners, no one commissioner should be put on the hot seat to negotiate pay, especially given that the employee herself has stated she will quit if her demands aren’t met.
If Boucher’s request is granted, she will have received a 16% annual pay increase over five years, from $91k to $165k. This sets a precedent that would balloon the Auditor's salary to over $600,000 by the year 2035.
The next County Commissioner meeting is today at 4 pm in Green Cove Springs.