Tamarac City Manager Michael Cernech.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
The Tamarac commission has voted to give City Manager Michael Cernech an annual merit award at the December 11 meeting.
Cernech, who has been with the city of Tamarac since 2001, was appointed city manager in 2011 after serving as deputy city manager and assistant city manager.
In 2018, his salary was $249,049. He also received a three percent merit award of $7,471. Included in his package were a $9,600 car allowance and a $1,440 cellphone allowance for a total of $267,560. The figure does not include health insurance, laptop, a 1 million dollar life insurance policy, pension, and expenses.
The city commissioners also voted on his amended contract, which runs until it is terminated by either the city or city manager. Under the new contract, if the city commission terminates Cernech under this agreement, the severance period is 20 weeks, which amounts to $98,661.53.
At the meeting, Commissioner Michael Gelin said he was concerned about the contract, and asked that a third-party compensation consultant review it. However, he did not get a second motion.
In September, Cernech was selected as Delray Beach’s next city manager, but both the city of Delray Beach and Cernech stepped away from the contract negotiations after being unable to come to an agreement.
According to Delray Newspaper, Mayor Shelly Petrolia calculated the contract Cernech proposed totaled nearly $400,000 when the salary and benefits were added up.
She said she should “almost be thanked” that the deal didn’t happen.