St. Pete officials paid bonuses for extra hours they worked to give Rays owner $1B

This is a slightly weird one: Two weeks after Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg received approval of over a billion dollars in public subsidies for his new stadium project, 17 top St. Petersburg officials received $250,000 in bonuses for their work on the project. According to public records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, city administrator Rob Gerdes, city attorney Jackie Kovilaritch, city development administrator James Corbett, and other city employees who worked on the project received checks of up to $25,000 last Thursday, something that Mayor Ken Welch argued was “within budget and my administrative authority”:

“The amount of time and effort required of key staff for the successful Historic Gas Plant District development agreement process was extraordinary,” Welch said in a statement. “For more than a year, our team members worked extended hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays, adjusted their personal schedules, and put family obligations on hold.

“This work was on top of their other work duties.”

On the one hand, $250,000 is a teeny amount of money off the top of a $1 billion project. (The city actually originally budgeted $1 million in “operational costs” for bringing the stadium deal to fruition.) And everyone, city employees included, should be compensated for working overtime hours — though under federal law, executive and administrative workers are typically exempt from earning overtime.

At the same time, the disclosure of the bonus checks shows just how far the Welch administration went to bring Sternberg’s dream stadium complex to fruition. The Times didn’t report whether St. Pete officials got bonus checks for any other recent work, but presumably they weren’t also working on holidays on other city needs, just on building a Rays stadium and surrounding development. This is one of the many hidden costs of public construction of privately used sports venues, and really big development projects in general: Not only are taxpayers on the hook for a pile of public money, but other needs get short shrift while everyone in local government is busy jumping through hoops to make the big flashy stuff happen.

Several St. Petersburg councilmembers were alarmed by the report of the bonus checks, with John Muhammad, who voted against the stadium deal, declaring himself “shocked” while Gina Driscoll, who voted in favor, replied, “Speechless.” The TB Times seems not to have asked Sternberg for comment, though he was probably too busy swimming in his money like Scrooge McDuck anyway.

UPDATE 4:20 pm ET: Mayor Welch has announced he’s “rescinded” the bonsuses, because “I am concerned about the alignment of this process with our governing principles, and the unintended response the payments have garnered.” Quick, St. Pete officials, cash those checks and head to Bolivia!

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8 comments on “St. Pete officials paid bonuses for extra hours they worked to give Rays owner $1B

  1. This technically isn’t corruption and illegal activity — they could easily say this is akin to a private company giving bonuses to its employees for a job well-done, a gesture which itself feels more rare across industries nowadays — but this still isn’t exactly a good image play on the city’s behalf.

  2. Now, the Times is reporting that Welch has rescinded the bonuses due to an “unintended response.”

      1. Normally the grift is paid on the back-end away from prying eyes not in the front and center.

        Welch needs to be schooled by his colleagues up the 95. He’s obviously new to this.

  3. This is similar to what happened in Glendale from 2009 to 2015. So much attention was paid to the Coyotes that essential city services like code enforcement and fire department response times were ignored. Raucious 6 hour meeting after 5 hour meeting were spent focused on potential Coyotes buyers, lease agreements and outright subsidies that little else was discussed at city council meetings. The shift from 7-0 pro Coyotes to 7-0 throw the Coyotes out of Glendale was a long, painful 10 year process. Norma Alvarez joined the council opposed to the Coyotes, Phil Lieberman flipped first and was isolated from his former friends on the council. Mayor Elaine Scruggs flipped next in 2012, leaving the council a contentious 4-3 in favor of the Coyotes. Finally after the departure of sellouts City Manager Beasley and City Attorney Tindall were exposed the process of evicting the Coyotes from Glendale was underway. Massive giveaways to sports owners really aren’t popular with voters, but politicians seem to be reeeaaalllyyyy sloooow learners.

  4. This is all ridiculous, but from employees’ standpoint, totally sucks to get 25 grand on a Thursday and be told it’s voided on Monday.

    Worst. Monday. Ever.

    Hopefully they didn’t trade the dental plan for a keg.

  5. I know it was rescinded but would the “bonus” have still been awarded had they not approved the $1.6 billion for Sternberg? Was the bonus a reward for “hard work” or approval of the funding?

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