Who makes how much? Nearly 1,700 public-sector employees in Okaloosa County earn $50,000 a year (with SEARCHABLE DATABASE)

Besides being Okaloosa County's main attorney, John Dowd holds another distinction: He's its highest-paid employee.

Dowd, the county's legal adviser for decades, earns $165,591 a year.

Several other public employees are close on his heels.

The Northwest Florida Daily News collected salaries from 13 government entities in the county.

One finding: nearly 1,700 public employees earn more than $50,000 a year. That figure is nearly 50 percent higher than the county's average per capita income - $34,374 in 2008, according to the University of West Florida's Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development.

Public employees who earn $50,000 or more work in various positions. But 70 percent are administrators or teachers in the Okaloosa County School District or at Northwest Florida State College.

The Daily News has posted a database of those $50,000-plus public employees at nwfdailynews.com. Search through the database here »

"Payroll is the greatest government expense for taxpayers," said Pat Rice, director of content for the Daily News. "We built the database to inform citizens as precisely as possible regarding what their tax dollars pay for." Read Pat Rice's blog »

A view from the top

The top public money earners in 2009 are:

- Dowd;

- Interim Northwest Florida State College President Jill White ($164,166);

- Okaloosa County Administrator Jim Curry ($153,286);

- Circuit judges Jack Heflin, Terry Ketchel, Thomas Remington and William Stone ($145,080 each);

- Northwest Florida State College Vice President David Goetsch ($144,728).

Many of the top names are familiar; the five highest-paid public officials the county in 2005 were former college President Bob Richburg, Dowd, White, Sheriff Charlie Morris and Curry.

White is one of only two female public officials to make the top 10 list. The other is County Judge Patricia Grinstead, who earns $137,020 a year.

Judges' salaries are set by state statute.

"It used to be that a female (college) president was a very, very rare thing to see," White said. "I think that's changing."

"And I would predict that the next time you do this salary study, you will probably see more women."

As interim president in place of the recently fired Richburg, White also remains responsible for her former duties as a vice president.

The college has a higher percentage - 40 percent - of $50,000-plus earners than any other entity in the database. White attributed that to the college's older, highly educated and professional workforce.

Just missing the top 10 earners is Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts, who makes $123,139 a year. Her salary is set by state statute.

The county's teachers earn an average salary of $51,446, the fourth highest average among 67 school districts in the state. All told, one-third of school district employees make more than $50,000. Most of those employees - 86 percent - are teachers.

By comparison, teachers in Walton County average $46,989 a year. Santa Rosa County teachers average $44,685 a year.

"Our salaries are good. I'm not embarrassed at all," Tibbetts said. "A lot of people think teachers should make as much as doctors and lawyers. They've got the future in their hands."

Karen Peek, a 5th-grade teacher at Bluewater Elementary School and president of the Okaloosa County Education Association, said the salaries are enough to sustain teachers who own homes and provide for their families.

"Our community does appreciate the work we do, and most probably recognize that someone who has worked in the same career for 20-plus years should be making a living wage," Peek said.

"... As we tout our district as the best in the state, we've got to remember who helped make that happen."

Not included in the daily News online database are about 3,200 additional public workers who earn between $20,000 and $50,000.

Among that group:

- 44 paramedics and relief paramedics (median salary: $28,599);

- 74 firefighters and dispatchers, including some engineers, inspectors and chiefs (median salary: $30,024);

- 348 sheriff's deputies, police officers and dispatchers, including some sergeants and lieutenants (median salary: $37,125);

- Dozens of custodians, clerks, truck drivers, utility workers, laborers and other employees.

It's been a challenging year financially for nearly all public employees in the county.

Lower tax revenues have meant stalled salaries and changes to benefit plans. The prospect looms of unpaid leaves or layoffs.

Payroll remained the biggest expense in Okaloosa County government - and the biggest target for officials looking to cut costs.

"Zero increases, across the board," Curry said of the county's budget talks for the upcoming fiscal year. "We had some discussion about the potential of even needing to do a decrease."

Staff cuts and furloughs "are all on the table," said District 2 County Commissioner John Jannazo.

But "their attitudes are still very, very positive," he said of county workers. "They understand that things are changing and the sacrifices are for everybody."

County government employees did not get a pay raise this fiscal year. Last year, they received a 2 percent cost-of-living raise but also had to pay a new $40-per-month charge for health coverage.

"It's not fair to put the burden of reduced pay on just the employees," said Shalimar resident Dave Parisot, who attends most county commission meetings and carefully analyzes the board's budgets. "It becomes a leadership issue."

Safe from cuts

Almost without exception, salaries for Okaloosa's elected constitutional officers and school district officials have risen each year since 1986.

Those salaries are calculated annually according to state statute, which uses a multiplier formula based on the county's population.

In 2006, Okaloosa's commissioners received a 5.5 percent raise - about $3,300 - to push their salaries past $60,000. Today, they earn $66,900, a raise of 28 percent from 2000 levels.

Curry said commissioners have no flexibility and no authority to vote to reduce their own salaries.

"Our board struggles with that," Curry said. "Is it fair to have employees not have any increase or even have the potential to have a salary reduction, and not allow us to lead by example?"

Some commissioners have also received paychecks from other public entities:

- District 5 Commissioner James Campbell earns an additional $62,608 as Niceville's recreation director. That gives him a combined salary of $129,508, making him the 14th highest-paid public employee in the county.

- District 4 Commissioner Don Amunds earned an extra $29,000 in the last fiscal year as an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office information technology specialist. He left that job in April after criticism.

- Jannazo reported a $2,717 paycheck from the school district on his 2007 financial disclosure form.

State Sen. Don Gaetz's suggestion: Take the pay, but give some back.

"Here's what I do: I pay taxes on it and then I donate it," Gaetz said. "You can either wait for the Legislature to reduce salaries or simply cut a check back to the county."

In the past, Gaetz, as an Okaloosa County School Board member and later as superintendent, returned pay raises provided under the state's automatic formula.

"It just seemed wrong to accept (a raise)... when the people doing the real work were, in my judgment at least, being undercompensated for their efforts," he said.

On Wednesday, state senators will take a pay cut from $30,336 to $29,697. Gaetz said he uses his salary to run his office, which would ordinarily take state funds, and donates the rest to charity.

However, Gaetz is worth an estimated $25 million, money he has earned as a private businessman. By contrast, the county commissioner with the greatest wealth is Amunds, who was worth about $2.1 million in 2006, according to his financial disclosure report.

Tough year for Richburg, Sansom, Morris

For years, the highest-paid public official in the county was Richburg, whose salary at NWF State College this year was to have been $207,886.

Then a state grand jury indicted him and state Rep. Ray Sansom for official misconduct and perjury.

Richburg and Sansom have said they are not guilty of the charges, which relate to a $6 million training center the college planned to build at Destin Airport.

The grand jury concluded the training center was really intended as an aircraft hangar for Destin developer Jay Odom, who also has been charged with official misconduct. Odom also denies any wrongdoing.

Richburg announced to the college's board of trustees last November that he had given Sansom a $110,000-a-year part-time job. He told them on the same day Sansom became state speaker of the House. For a short time, Sansom's combined annual salary jumped to about $152,000.

The board of trustees fired Richburg after he was charged by the grand jury. He is disputing the firing, and it's possible that the board will enter mediation with him.

Sansom resigned from the college job under pressure in January. Then he resigned as Speaker of the House. He now earns about $30,000 annually as a state representative.

Former Sheriff Charlie Morris was the county's highest-paid constitutional officer, at more than $135,000 per year. He lost his job after the FBI arrested him in late February for a kickback scheme.

He eventually pleaded guilty to charges that he gave employees bonuses and secretly asked for cash back. He awaits sentencing in August.

Job loss, ‘no warning'

When the city of Fort Walton Beach recently cut a fire inspector's position, Len Gadzinski lost his job.

His salary, according to city records, was just under $50,000 a year.

"I feel like the person who got shot in the drive-by shooting," said the 60-year-old Gadzinski, a father of two teenagers. "Maybe it wasn't aimed for me, but I got shot just the same."

He is a 35-year veteran of the fire service, beginning his career in Philadelphia. He moved to the Emerald Coast in 2001, working as an inspector and teaching fire safety to children and the elderly.

In May, he was called in and informed his position would be cut.

"There was no warning, there was no consultation with the chief," Gadzinski said. "They sat down and they picked seven positions within the city, one of them being mine."

The firefighters association fought cutting Gadzinski. Members even voted to delay step raises for fire personnel - which would have totaled about $97,000 - to try and save Gadzinski's job. That was declined.

Gadzinski's last day was June 5.

Experienced, nearing retirement age and almost vested in his pension, Gadzinski said he feels the logic was, "You're older, you're going to cost us more and you're going to cost us more in the future."

Battalion Chief Danny Fureigh said fire departments are "absolutely struggling" with low pay and rising health care costs.

"The only thing we got right now in our budget is salaries and toilet paper" - and every firefighter has at least two jobs, he said.

Today, Gadzinski is looking for a new one.

"Because of my age, I can't work in the field anymore; 65-year-old firefighters don't make it," he said. "... But I have the family of a 45-year-old. I can't just say I'm gonna retire. I'll be working for a while if I can find work."

"I'll survive. We all survive. But I wish sometimes I had a crystal ball so I knew what's around the corner."