Gov. Rick Scott is usually pretty even tempered -- he moves from issue to issue with a keen focus, addresses it and moves on.

But when the issue turns to Citizens Property Insurance Corp., he can get downright angry.

Scott and the chief of Citizens are not on the same page over some big raises for a handful of top executives at the state-run insurer.

President and CEO Barry Gilway awarded raises ranging between $25,000 and $31,000 to five top employees. Now the company’s chief financial officer earns $255,000 a year.

Gilway argues the raises are justified because the executives took on new responsibilities and their new salaries are more comparable to what they could earn in the private sector.

Gov. Scott is not buying it. He’s mad about the raises, travel spending and an incident last year in which some Citizens executives used a corporate credit card to buy more than $350 worth of alcohol at a company dinner.

"They've given outrageous pay raises. They should retract those. They ought to take seriously the inspector general's report and look at their travel policy and look at reimbursement of alcohol."

Gilway, meanwhile, has this to say about his salary increases: "I really have to have the opportunity to compensate people effectively if I'm going to get the job done that we need done."

Gilway claims that he has lost four top executives in the past several months because they could make more money in the private sector.

He says if he’s going to be able to solve the company’s tough challenges, then he needs to pay good workers effectively to keep them on the job.

See video comment on this page by Scott and Gilway.



Dave Heller is a Tallahassee freelance reporter/videographer.