Contract Negotiations

The next collective bargaining session will be July 11 at 1:00p.m. in the second floor conference room of City Hall. We anticipate the financial benefit package proposal from the City. For the one or two people that seem to think that the FOP or myself haven't done anything for the officers, I welcome your participation at the meeting.

Dam it Ken. We had almost made it a whole 2 weeks with no posts and you come and screw it all up!!!!

beginning now 05 july 2007 approx. 0100...when will be our next posting

financial benefit package, aka see how much were under paid, compared to the rest of the county's agencies.

You should ask for a temporary status quo settlement for a year until the tax thing gets settled. Talking to the media wouldn't be bad this time either.

This city is a crap hole and most of the citizens know it...look at the recent citizen survey. I have never seen a city government so lax about crime. They want to cut us? How about the stupid horse infrastructure that caters to only the wealthiest citizens of the city?

In reality this town needs about 30 more cops especially since half of the manpower is supervisory. We shouldn't be in the business if we can't be in the business.

The media won't be sympathetic to us. The counties and cities have been talking about how poor they are going to be and that they are going to have to cut emergency services if the taxes get cut.

Guess what, taxes got cut, services are being cut, and taxes are liable to get cut again in January. Timing for a significant raise at any department is poor right now in the entire state. What makes you think anyone is going to be sympathetic to us right now.

As far as 30 more cops. Have you listened to the radio lately. Sure there are days when things are hoppin but there are many days when the radio is silent for long periods of time. You can't justify 30 more cops. Lets face it, those who want to rag on SPO's and cry about how hard they have to work don't like to work period. Same people that for years complain about having to take a call out of there zone and slam newbies who actually go out and enjoy working. Of course they are also that will be on the lower part of the list on proactivity. Summed up in one word....LAZY.... Your justification, 30 more cops so I don't have to work. Pathetic.... Just do your 10 hours and cash your check at the end of the pay period. That is all you do now anyway.

I want thirty more cops to clean up the city, not do less work. I think half the agency we have right now should be fired for uselessness.

Go out with Vice one day and see how many drug houses we have in the city. The amount we have can't touch it.

Go upstairs in CIS and see how many cases have to be shelved because of manpower. There are no in depth fraud investigations going on, no internet investigations dealing with pedophiles....and no the SO is not doing them here either. Cold case S5's....when we can someday get to them.

Check with Youth Services and ask about the gangs. Completely unchecked. No one is watching them or going after them.

Check with FDLE and ask about OC in the city.....you would be shocked at how many organizations and front businesses there are in the city.....some of whom we provide security for and X58 at.

We have the same crime rate as cities bigger than us. we have more stolen or pawned property sold here than in Clearwater and Largo combined!

Actually brother I don't care about raises I want to do what I set out to do and what I swore to do. Don't gauge criminal activity by radio traffic and step out of your ticket writing bubble.

Dude, nice post and all but this is the PPPD board, not St. Pete.

A couple posts back another supervisor posts about our officers being lazy and to do your time and collect their checks. I came into the PD a few weeks ago and noticed 2 spos reading reports and 1 sgt watching them, i guess that is a streamline system. how about when 4 or 5 supervisors check out to x58 together, another sterling example of teamwork. We have some really good spos and i wish i could give them their well deserved respect by name, but this post will get dumped. but we have some spos who only worry about where they are going to meet up for x58 and driving around taking a x94 here and there. Seems to me we could put each spo back in a zone taking calls and let the sgts do what they had done for years, which is read the reports, then get active. I think all of the sgts do a good job, but how can we continue to justify having all these spos, who collect the 7% and do less work for it. that would trim some fat around here, just a suggestion

But soon they will be Super Corporal!!!!! We need more supervisors.

If some SPO's are workers and others are lazy and allowed to be, then it is a supervisory issue, not a too many supervisors issue.

Many agencies have corporals. It is a specialized position for those some day wanting to be Sergeants. It gives us and the big bosses an idea of what these folks will be like as Sergeants one day.

I would hope that some of these folks will never get picked for Sergeant because of their performance as SPO's. Time will tell on that. I would rather know now then a year after they are a Sergeant and off probation.

Give them a chance to prove themselves or hang themselves. You and I already know which ones are hanging themselves.

what about only giving the spos the 7% only when the sgt is out and the spo is actually the in charge person. this would save money and the rest of the time they can copy calls. i don't think this 4 or 5 supervisors to barely 5 officers per shift ratio is working out very good.

You should become Chief to show us how it is done.

We lost an officer when one night on evening shift it was very busy. A Sergeant sent out a message saying that all X58 was cancelled until the calls were caught up. Moments later that Sergeant, another Sergeant, and a SPO all checked out at X58.

That's leadership at PPPD. That officer is now in the private sector. Just keep hitting on the little man especially in these coming bleak times. LT's and Sgt's scooping up all the overtime despite their higher pay. That is so classy.

I have also dealt with similar instances. We have at times to much supervision. The Adm. needs to look carefully at some issues regarding pay. The workers are getting screwed while the supervisors are padding their checks.....

Please explain how supervisors are padding their checks? Your statement indicates something inappropriate is going on but seniority determines when you can sign up for overtime, not rank. Their are many officers who can bump Sergeants and even Lt's from the board because of their seniority.

I suspect in 10 years, low man, your attitude on seniority based overtime will change. Until that point you will just have to live in the system like we all have had to do.

Please do not come on here and claim that something below board is taking place when you know good and well what the truth is.

There has been more overtime on the board in June and July than at any point in our history that I can think of. No one who wants overtime is going without right now so I can only think that your post is meant to be divisive and mean spirited. At the very least it was incorrect.

I hope that's not correct about your two Srg's and Spo taking a meal break after cancelling all other meal breaks. The SO is far from perfect but our Cpl's, Srg's, and even Lt's take calls if we are all tied up. We even had a Major who did x50's. I am sorry, this is just wrong and I hope a Srg or two reads this post. If they disagree, it tells me they forgot where they came from. Ok, bring it on..."Stay on your own board SO." Be safe brothers and sisters.

When your in charge and responsible for others, your subordinates eat and when they have all eaten, you eat.

a few weeks back there was a man power shortage on day shift..2 SGTs, 2 SPOs and Lt and 4 officers..they need 6..so what do they do? they sent an AM saying that midnight units had to stay over and cover the shift..

Well, one SPO says that's stupid and takes a zone..the busiest one..on his Friday..and the other SPO, well he floats..and a midnight unit still had to stay to cover a zone...where were the SGTs and LT? Who knows?

I can't wait..just a little while more and I'll have my 7 years and qualifiy for an SPO spot..Then I live the good life...7 percent and my biggest heartache is schedule and reports..yes!!

Perhaps you may just want to check your facts or are you just posting bullcrap to stir it up.

Minimum staffing for days is 6 officers but SPO's count. So in your little story, Mids wouldn't have been asked to hold over. It doesn't matter if they are assigned zones or not, they still count for minimum staffing.

You credibility on this board has just gone down...

what is the difference if SPOs count toward min staffing? I only know of 2 or 3 SPOs who step up and cover a zone. You guys know who you are and we thank you. Ive overheard SPOs and Sgts laughing and joking that they took primary on 2 calls on a shift. The punchline was the calls were easy paper reports. The point was they made it seem like they went over and above to handle an assist citizen call. This pd has lost control with the top-heavy supervisory positions. If someone can give me a valid reason why we need so many supervisors for each shift, please do so in a respectful manner. no one has ever defended this issue and we would like to know how the positions can be justified.

Ok, maybe we have a bad batch of SPO's. However, what you fail to take into account that if you give up these positions then we have less supervisory positions to move into in the future. Your suggestion limits my ability to move upward which I am against.

If you want to rail on here that a few current SPO's on here are bad, fine and I'm sure most would agree. However to come on here and advocate removal of the program is backward thinking.

Don't can a program over a few bad apples. Clean the apples.

The program is a failure because it did not perform the goals it was supposed to...much like the LT position. We used to have more officers and less supervisors and people got in less trouble.

There is the real rub right there..... More supervisors equal more people in trouble.

Sorry you got caught doing something you weren't supposed to. Now this all makes more sense. If there aren't SPO's then there are less people to hold us accountable to do things the right way.

Bottom line, keep the SPO's, Sgt's make them do their jobs and make sure our SPO's aren't being lazy. For the rest, if we do our jobs the way we were trained and the way the law and books say its to be done, then we don't have to worry about getting in trouble.

But thanks for clarifying why you think the program is a failure.

Oh, and unless your a Sergeant, how can you judge if the LT position is a failure.

Not the same guy you were going back and forth with. SPO's can't discipline you and they are wrong 90% of the time so I could care less.

90% of them have used the program as an excuse to be lazy...FYI I have no SPO that supervises me. Those LT's really freed the sergeants up didn't they? Not bad guys in this case and I am not attacking them they were all great sgts.....the position is just kinda silly for such a one horse agency.

Ok so here is the sit rep. The city is crying poor mouth. Fine. What will they do with new growth. Read this article and ask yourself if the city is going to waive all fees and taxes for three years like they are accustomed to.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/15/Neighborhoodtimes/Friendly_s_to_bring_i.shtml

Also I just thought of a great way to save a ton of money. FIRE EVERYONE IN MIS. They have like two bosses. For what, one to be a bigger ahole then the other. They don't do anything right, ever. Now this is not meant to bash the ones who actually do shi*t, (Mike, Matt, Tom) this is about the lazy ones of the ones who have an excuse for everything. They should be SPO's I guess.