union vote

Anybody hear what happened with the vote?????

Yes! The deputies voted 128 in favor of the Union to 37 against and the supervisors voted 37 in favor of the Union to 25 against, paving the way for the new Sheriff! For a second time in history, the men and women of the Clay County Sheriff's Office have cast a vote of no confidence in their Sheriff for his lack of professionalism and lack of leadership!

Yes! The deputies voted 128 in favor of the Union to 37 against and the supervisors voted 37 in favor of the Union to 25 against, paving the way for the new Sheriff! For a second time in history, the men and women of the Clay County Sheriff's Office have cast a vote of no confidence in their Sheriff for his lack of professionalism and lack of leadership!

God Bless you guys for heading in the right direction.....Its a shame this far into the state legislation passing our right to representation and there still some agencies out there especially S.O.'s without it....Its an issue of Good 'Ol Boys v.s. the troops which my agency Citrus County is still battling today...

Amen to collective bargaining!!!!

Congrats guys! Welcome to the world of unions. Just a heads up,,,I hope things go better for you than they have for us. For example: this year we voted no on our whopping 3% we were going to get offered. Sheriff didn't even want to listen to our other requests. Went to arbitration and we still weren't offered more. Didn't even offer backpay/retro even though the 3% is already budgeted and is gaining interest for every day. So, no raises since October. Went to a final vote and guess what? Sgt's and Lt's voted yes this time and deputies still said no. Looks like we are going to impass (sp?) Good luck, it's not gonna b fun. Don't get me wrong, I'm for unions, but since it's so new to us in Florida it's gonna take awhile before we are strong like the midwest and unions in NY.

i am a deputy with a large s.o. about an hour and a half drive south. we made same the mistake you did, two years ago.

first of all its not a union. it is a collective barganing unit. your sheriff doesnt have to give in to any of your demands.

if you were more supportive of your administration, you may just get what you want.

unions support the lazy, worthless deputy and do nothing for those professional dedicated hard working deputies im sure you have in your agency.

i am a land owner in your county and look forward to being a resident someday. i also hope to join your team and finish out my career with you folks. but i will tell you this, i will vote no to your "union"

my agency members have seen the light and we are voting the union out this year. it amounted to a big waste of time, money, and effort. ill be watching to see how it goes for you. good luck

Well, if you would vote NO to our union or collective bargaining agent, we are glad that you are 1 1/2 hours south of us and we hope you enjoy your career there. We have needed the union for protection against a less than professional and highly inexperienced Sheriff that has wreaked havoc upon our department and community with his policies and practices. You are correct, he does not have to give in to the union/collective bargaining agent's demands, but we can still mount political pressure on him to work with us and it is working. Additionally, he cannot fire us now for not supporting him.

If your department decided it was not worth the time or effort, great for you. We have never needed representation in our county until this man took office 3 years ago. So, again enjoy your career down south while we try to protect what little professionalism is left.

You only need to look at the number of our members that have left, taken early retirements, quit, or been fired to see we have a serious problem. You would be better served to understand the issues we have with this Sheriff before giving your advice.

By the way, this Sheriff held a 4% raise over everyone's head telling our members that he could not LEGALLY give a raise while we did not have a contract (despite the fact that he gave the raise the previous year without a contract). This was done to pressure the union decertification out of the department. Now, if we do not have any power, why would this guy fight us so hard?

The day after the Union was voted in OVERWHELMINGLY, he gave our members their raises. Again, we have a union because we need one.

I hope that whoever is elected to be the Sheriff only realizes how important the men and women of CCSO are. Being long gone (10+ years now) and enjoying my law enforcement career in Central Florida. I remember the days of the County Politics and having the opportunity of going through 2 sheriffs races. I can only say that my move lead to raises of 8% annually for many years which have only been reduced to 6% more recently because of the decline in general revenue money. That does not include the salary adjustments made by the Commission for keeping pace with the job market and increases in local salaries (and my employer does a study about every other year by an outside firm). And then there are the bonuses that you can receive for doing an outstanding job that is above and beyond your normal duties, annual longevity money awarded for years of service, etc. Then you have the fact that you are paid for hours worked over in a 40 hour work week and double time paid on holidays. Comp-time is not one of those words that the Commission likes to hear and use as a means to reward the employees for time worked - they want them paid. The unfortunate problem is that generally the citizens of Clay County have not realized how under appreciated the hard working deputies of Clay County truly are.

And while unions can help to resolve some problems when you have inequalities in discipline there are other means to resolve these issues by implementing discipline policies that render points for violations committed and are equated to punishment that is awarded equally across the board. There are examples out there and are successfully used (Clearwater Police Department has one for example) and then it takes away the stigma of being one of the bosses chosen few. No, we do not have a union at my place of employment, because about 9 years ago we elected to decertify the union because we started making these changes in how discipline was awarded and worked to ensure equality. Is it perfect, not likely but it works well and the neat thing is that when the policy was established the violations were classified, violations placed in the level of classification based on an employee committee who were much more harsh then the staff was considering. Like it or not we all have an underlaying knowledge that discipline leads to professionalism, it just needs to be administered fairly. Just remember that unions do not necessarily resolve all of the problems, it will take each of you sit down at the table and try to hash out what are really the issues and hopefully with time and an understanding ear from whomever the Sheriff is many of the issues can be resolved and everyone can get back to the real needs of the citizens - providing professional law enforcement services.

And if things don't work out I do share with you all that CCSO is not the only agency out there. I remember how hard it was for me to make the move, but there is never a day that I look back and say that I made the wrong choice. I also often run into other former CCSO deputies that work in the Central Florida area and have never heard them say that their decision was the wrong one. Many of them are Sgts. and Lts. making good salaries and enjoying their careers.

Keep up the good work. :)

I commend you on your decision to seek employment elsewhere. But, it is a shame that you would recommend having to leave to make things better. We should be able to expect our Sheriff and Administration would conduct themselves professionally, just as you have found in central Florida.