Against the advice of their own city auditor, Fort Lauderdale commissioners agreed not to claw back money from out-of-the-ordinary pay increases given to two police union bosses last year.
The raises, given in January 2024, never got the required commission approval. They came to light eight months later, taking the entire commission by surprise and sparking a debate about whether the city should recover the money.
In January 2024, then-City Manager Greg Chavarria directed the Human Resources director to increase the salaries of Union President Scott Moseley and Union Vice President Scott Hoffer.
As officers, Moseley and Hoffer each had been earning $112,923 a year. Together, the raises amounted to more than $105,000 for one year alone.
Moseley got a 59% raise, with his salary jumping to $179,524. Hoffer got a 34% bump to $151,549.
Susan Grant, who took over as acting city manager after Chavarria announced his exit in April, learned about the raises in August after the city received a public records request inquiring about them.
Grant immediately rescinded both raises and told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she planned to conduct a fact-finding inquiry to determine whether to claw back the money.
Soon after, Mayor Dean Trantalis requested an investigation by the city auditor.
In a report dated Oct. 25, City Auditor Patrick Reilly stated that Moseley and Hoffer should reimburse taxpayers for the raises.
Because the raises were rescinded, they ended up costing taxpayers $64,755, city records show.
Trantalis defended the commission’s decision not to seek reimbursement of the money.
“I think it was an appropriate compromise under the circumstances,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “While I disagree with the policy of having paid the increased salaries to both Scott Moseley and Scott Hoffer, we stopped any future payments.”
Moseley and Hoffer could not be reached for comment.
The union filed a grievance months ago contesting the city’s decision to take away their raises.
The union has since withdrawn the grievance.
In a previous interview, Moseley defended the raises he and Hoffer negotiated for themselves, saying they did nothing wrong by going directly to the city manager to ask for a pay increase.
“The city manager is our point of contact for contract matters,” Moseley said by text last year. “That’s who we are required to deal with, and that’s what we did. We relied on the city manager and expected the city to live up to its agreement.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me at @Susannah_Bryan