Some Titusville residents question city manager's pay raises, perceived control over council

Just like many other cities, major issues in Titusville include striking a balance between development and preserving the environment, as well as how to address aging infrastructure.

But Titusville residents and others who follow developments within the city also have raised issues more focused on the city's government itself — including City Manager Scott Larese, his perceived control over the elected City Council, his salary and his stellar performance reviews.

"I see the city manager running the show, and I see the City Council following along," said Michael Myjak, vice chair of the Titusville Environmental Commission and chair of Speak Up Titusville.

Kevin Jeffrey, president of the Brevard County Republican Assembly and host of the political- and community-focused Brevard News podcast, contends that "the city manager is running the city. The council is supposed to be keeping him in check, and they don't."

Elizabeth Baker — a Titusville resident and volunteer for Fight for Zero , a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works for environmental health issues — said she believes Larese also "does not communicate with the people" of Titusville.

Larese did not respond to three phone messages left at City Hall and an email to his city email address from FLORIDA TODAY, seeking comment for this story.

Titusville has a council-manager form of government, which means that the Council is tasked with setting policy, and the city manager is tasked with implementing that policy. Council member Sarah Stoeckel said that she, for one, understands that the city manager works at the behest of the City Council and is hired by the Council. Stoeckel said, if the Council is not happy with how the manager is implementing policy, the manager can be removed from office with a majority vote of the five-member Council.

"We are his boss," Stoeckel said. "He is not our boss."

Titusville Vice Mayor Joe Robinson said he is not influenced by the city manager in his votes as a Council member.

"My decisions are my own," Robinson said.

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Some residents of Titusville ― Brevard County's third-most-populous city ― also have issues with the pay raises the City Council granted to Larese, bringing his salary to $220,605. That's up more than 57% from the $140,000 annual salary Larese was hired at in 2014. Larese received pay increases totaling $24,645 in the last year alone, including a cost-of-living increase given to all city employees.

That puts Larese's salary for being the city manager of a city of about 50,000 residents close to the city manager's salary in Brevard's two most-populous cities, which have significantly more residents. The city manager of Melbourne (population of about 88,000) makes $241,500 a year, while the city manager of Palm Bay (population of about 133,000) makes $229,307.

In his latest annual performance review, Larese also received perfect "exceeds expectations" ratings in all 30 categories from three of the five City Council members — Mayor Dan Diesel, Robinson and Herman Cole. Some residents question how Larese can get perfect scores in everything.

Robinson said he sees nothing wrong with giving Larese a perfect score of 150 out of 150.

"I think it's fair for the job he does," Robinson said. "Nobody is perfect. There is no perfect person. But there is perfect performance."

Stoeckel's rating of Larese was the lowest of the five Council members, but still relatively high, at 143 out of a possible 150 points. Among her comments in the review, Stoeckel said that, "as Titusville continues to grow, it is imperative that community education and transparency remains at the forefront of how the city moves forward."

Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com , on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Some Titusville residents question city manager's pay raises, perceived control over council