- December 4, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission approved a raise for City Manager Alvin Jackson after his glowing annual performance evaluation, on Oct. 13.
The commission voted to award Jackson a 7.5% salary increase, in addition to a 2.5% Cost of Living Adjustment after a lengthy debate. That brings his salary from $146,972.80 up to $157,976.00.
Jackson received an average score of 2.74 out of a possible 3.00, based on individual reviews submitted by each commissioner. Mayor Catherine Robinson began the discussion, giving him a 2.95 out of 3.00.
Commissioner Pete Young followed her statement with praise and suggested a raise that was higher than others anticipated.
“We’re lucky to have him, especially nowadays, when other cities are having a hard time even selecting a city manager,” Young said, “and a lot of these cities pay a lot more money than we’re paying and we have a city manager that has a lot more training and experience. During our evaluation we were asked to evaluate them and to come up with a year salary for any kind of raise, if any, and I’d like to put out there that I’d like to see him get a 10% raise for this year.”
This came as a surprise to the city commissioners, as on his evaluation sheet, Young had originally suggested a 5% raise like the previous fiscal year.
After evaluating the budget, the commissioners knew it was possible to give Jackson this kind of raise, but other commissioners did not agree.
Vice Mayor John Rogers expressed his concerns about the budget and whether there would be anything left to give in the future.
“I just want to make sure that the backs of the taxpayers can handle it, because every year it goes up, expenses go up,” Rogers said. “Our insurance goes up. Our cost of public safety goes up. I’ve been on this dais with you when we couldn’t give them nothing, when it was so tight that we couldn’t give them a dime. I just want to make sure that, you know, we don’t create that too, when we got to look at it from a year and a half to two years now, it’s like, there’s nothing.”
Commissioner Dean Sechrist responded: “10% is a good, good number to look at, providing all the other employees of the city get a reasonable raise in addition to that. So, if that’s taking a lot out of the pool of money available, I would say let’s go somewhere of 7% to 8% because he deserves a nice raise — don’t get me wrong — but so do a lot of other employees, too.”
Mayor Robinson agreed, and she also reminisced on their first meeting, at Princess Place Preserve, in October 2018, when Jackson was first hired as city manager. The meeting focused on the big development of the city of Bunnell, and plans were discussed on where they would start.
“He’s been true to his word about the experience that he’s brought to the city of Bunnell,” Robinson said, “I think somewhere between 5 and 10% taking in the two and a half percent COLA is appropriate.”
Rogers compromised and suggested a 7.5% salary increase along with the 2.5% COLA, creating a total of a 10% overall salary increase for Jackson.
Commissioner David Atkinson agreed: “We are all in agreement that Dr. Jackson does an outstanding job, there’s no doubt about that. I’m gonna lean to the agreement of Vice Mayor Rogers.”
After the commissioners’ debate, public comments opened, revealing a Bunnell local who was not satisfied with the agreement.
“There are so many staff members in the city of Bunnell that work hard and do fantastic things and to take, assumingly, a larger portion of that pool for some person seems diminishing,” the Bunnell resident said.
Finance Director Kristi Moss explained that all Bunnell city employees will also receive the 2.5% COLA increase, as well as an average 3% salary increase across the board, depending on their merit.
The unanimous vote was passed for a 2.5% COLA increase along with a 7.5% salary increase, giving him an overall salary increase of 10%, doubling last fiscal year’s raise of 5%.
“My success is dependent upon the team’s success,” Jackson said. “So, Bunnell has been very successful, energetic, innovative, thinking outside the box, pushing the envelope, and I think we have the best team in the country and to be able to work for a board that’s working in unison on behalf of this community is an honor and a privilege. And I want to just once again say thank you for your vote of confidence every day and the relationship that I am with each one of you.”
