New county attorney still the top paid Miami-Dade employee

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As if the current salary wasn’t already too high, Miami-Dade commissioners increased it Tuesday when they approved the pay and benefits for incoming County Attorney Abigail Price-Williams, who becomes both the first woman and the first African American to hold that position.

She will take charge of the office in September, after longtime County Attorney Roger Cuevas, 69, retires.

With a base pay of about $6,000 a week, $3,000 of monthly expenses, an $800-a-month ar allowance and a $14,000 annual bonus called a “supplemental retirement” fund, the total compensation is $371,000 a year. It’ a raise of $38,000. And it’s about $7,000 more than what Cuevas — who was the highest paid county employee — made last year.

It’s a natural procession since Price-Williams, who has been with the legal department for 25 years, has been Cuevas’ No. 2 for eight years — and she is No. 2 on the county pay scale.

How much you wanna bet No. 3 and No. 4 work in the legal department also. There are about 120 other attorneys and staffers on the payroll of the legal department — which provides advice and representation to both the administration and the commission — making it one of the fattest county offices.  

“The best law firm in the county,” Commissioner Dennis Moss called it.

But why do we need the “best law firm in the county” on constant retainer? Is that really what such a great chunk of our taxpayer dollars should go to?

Only Commissioner Juan “Zorro” Zapata, who has criticized the size of the department in the past, voted against the compensation package Tuesday, but he could not be reached for comment as to why. He voted against a lot of things Tuesday and Ladra could sense that general frustration he feels all the time.

Maybe it was because Commission Chairman Jean Monestime‘s office did not include the dollar figures when they put Price-Williams’ compensation item on Tuesday’s agenda, until right before the meeting began.

Monestime is the one who moved to appoint Price-Williams as Cuevas’ replacement. But it was a unanimous vote.

  Abigail Price-Williams