The Osceola County Commission Monday approved a raise for County Manager Don Fisher to an annual salary of $285,000.
The 20 percent raise, from $236,000, is retroactive to Oct. 1, 2021, the start of the county’s fiscal year.
This comes just weeks after Fisher was named one of six semifinalists from a list of 60 potential candidates in the search for a new CEO at Orlando International Airport to replace the retiring Phil Brown. Fisher did not make the list of four finalists, but him being part of that search led to Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington working to amend Fisher’s contract to keep him in Osceola County.
Monday, Arrington said he and staff did a “comparable analysis” of other local municipal governments, bringing his salary in line with the market rate.
“We’ve got so much in motion, with NeoCity and beyond that, that we really benefit from the stability Don brings,” Arrington said. “He’s been with us 10 years in a role where the average in that role before him was a little over two years. Having that stability and his leadership has really helped Osceola County.”
Fisher said Monday he’s happy and proud to be with Osceola County.
“I was honored to make the short list of candidates (at the airport), but this is where I feel at home,” he said. “The staff is like family.”
Fisher, who essentially serves as the county government’s CEO in his role, is in his 15th fiscal year with Osceola County Government after seven years of similar experience in Seminole County. He came to the county in 2007 as the Growth Management Administrator. He was named county manager in June 2010 after three months as the interim manager.
While the new contract worked through the approval stage, Fisher has also been working to reorganize the county’s administration, adding an assistant and deputy county managers.
Darren Gray, a former executive for Orange County and the city of Clermont — and a Kissimmee native — has been added to the fold. Under a new flowchart that will soon go to commissioners for approval, he would oversee Osceola’s Community Development, Financial Services, Human Services, and Strategic Initiatives departments.
Also under the plan, Assistant County Manager Donna Renberg would become a Deputy Manager, overseeing Animal Services, Emergency Management, Business Services, Procurement, Corrections and public safety services.
Tawny Olore, the county’s Director of Transportation, would become an Assistant County Manager and continue to oversee transportation issues as well as communications,
Public Works and the IT department.
The move essentially creates a network of “more lieutenants” in order to be more responsive to larger departments serving a larger number of taxpayers.
“In the last decade, our population has increased 46 percent,” Fisher said. “So the county has changed, but our administrative hierarchy hasn’t. This would be a way to be more receptive to the growing needs of the county.”
