contract

I hope everyone is planning on voteing no for this b.s contract.........once again the guys with ten or more years and the ones taking the buyout are getting the biggest piece of the pie.............

I hope everyone is planning on voteing no for this b.s contract.........once again the guys with ten or more years and the ones taking the buyout are getting the biggest piece of the pie.............

As opposed to those agencies in central FL taking a 10% cut, and other agencies here getting nothing at all, you think this is BS? To quote the immortal Foghorn Leghorn, "Go away boy, ya bother me."

I hope everyone is planning on voteing no for this b.s contract.........once again the guys with ten or more years and the ones taking the buyout are getting the biggest piece of the pie.............

As opposed to those agencies in central FL taking a 10% cut, and other agencies here getting nothing at all, you think this is BS? To quote the immortal Foghorn Leghorn, "Go away boy, ya bother me."

"GO AWAY CECIL!!!!"

So you are saying we should be happy with what we get? Uh, wake up! LCSO and Cape PD did not get raises this year but guess what? They don't pay what we pay for insurance and retirement, please..... We don't need to SETTLE for anything, the city should be taking care of the officers who are keeping this city from imploding. We do ten times the work of any agency around with half the manpower. This B.S. is unfair and I hope it comes back to bite someone in the a@#.

So you are saying we should be happy with what we get? Uh, wake up! LCSO and Cape PD did not get raises this year but guess what? They don't pay what we pay for insurance and retirement, please..... We don't need to SETTLE for anything, the city should be taking care of the officers who are keeping this city from imploding. We do ten times the work of any agency around with half the manpower. This B.S. is unfair and I hope it comes back to bite someone in the a@#.


Bullwinkle
I totally agree with you buddy. Our PBA President can't protect cops job from bs IA's and now he can't negotiate a good contract for us. Way to go PBA President!!!! This is the reason why we need to vote for a new PBA President!!!

Vote NO.

I hope everyone is planning on voteing no for this b.s contract.........once again the guys with ten or more years and the ones taking the buyout are getting the biggest piece of the pie.............

I’m tired from reading so much B.S. on this website! Instead of condemning the agency, bashing each other, fueling controversy, and making all of us look like ignorant juveniles, let’s use this forum for input on matters that we can actually do something about! Stop being selfish and paranoid! We need to be educated, so that we can make informed decisions and come together on the issues to make changes for the better!

Did you read the contract or attend PBA meetings? The reason they want to give us raises in April and not now is so the City doesn't have to pay out more to the guys taking the buyout before the end of the year. And if anyone is getting the shaft, talk to the ten years plus guys and find that they got no hourly raise or backpay this payday because they have already EARNED top pay in the step plan. Is this the big piece of pie you want?? Is this how you think our dedicated, senior officers should be treated?...Especially since most of our experience is leaving and we have so few!

Back to the point...I agree we should not support the proposed contract but for other VALID reasons. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the City Manager hasn't chosen a Chief yet. We shouldn't even be negotiating right now. Nothing against Chief Baker, I think he deserves a chance; but he is still trying to earn the position and his decision making regarding our best interests HAS to be influenced by what the City wants to give us - as little as possible. After a Chief is selected, he will be more likely to table our concerns and back them in negotiations in an effort to win the support of his officers and improve morale, a huge issue right now.

A 3% raise in six months???? Don’t insult us please!! The cost of living continues to go through the roof, which is why our government gave social security a 5.8% COLA this year! That sounds like a reasonable raise! Since we would only get the pay increase for six months, their raise amounts to a measly 1.5% gain over the contract year. Meanwhile, we have no choice but to pay immediate increases in health insurance because the City won’t let the police department separate to bid cheaper rates.

They want an 80 hour work cycle translating into less overtime pay for us. Admin says it’s not that big of deal, just schedule your time off accordingly. That’s fine…until family visits you on their schedule, you get sick, or some other unforeseen circumstance requires your presence away from work. You could take two days off in two different pay cycles and lose OT for the whole month! Why not avoid confusion and pay OT for that time worked beyond your scheduled shift during each week of an 80 hour pay period. This allows for employees working any possible shift, 8, 10, or 12 hours.

Good or bad, we’re going to 12 hour shifts to accommodate the loss of 40 cops. This is due to a massive buyout that saves the City huge sums of money and gives the lucky retirees a sweetheart deal. We get a new schedule that interrupts our way of life and causes us to lose income. We now have to pay for childcare or spouses have to quit jobs or reduce hours. They say we get more days off, but we’re going to have to work more just to make up the difference. That means details and OT on your days off! That is, if you can get them! (There needs to be a fair method for obtaining extra work also, not hidden details or a posted sheet already filled in by the usual suspects getting preferential treatment!!!) Can’t we just work the 84 hours in a pay period that comes with 12 hour shifts and avoid the scheduling hassle? Guarantee us 4 hours of extra pay in our checks to soften the impact for picking up the slack in a crisis we didn’t cause. Our OT budget was increased to help with manpower and 12 hour shifts were the solution.

The Police Department’s spending is below the City’s budget for the first time in a long time, and we’re saving what they wanted done over two years in the first year! You cannot compare our financial issues to surrounding areas because, unlike them, our City did not suffer the huge losses in tax revenue due to property tax reform laws. Feel free to compare our lower wages, higher insurance, and pension contribution though! We are mostly commercial and can expect more revenue from growth and collection of fees from past projects when their grace period on waived taxes ends. But our Human Resources negotiator is playing Scrooge with us, probably trying to save money so her firefighter husband gets a big raise! Without us, she will be out of work. This city won’t be safe for residents, workers, and tourists. People and businesses will leave and there will be no tax base! Unnecessary jobs will be cut…but they will still need cops!

Believe me, I’m thankful to have a job in these tough times, but tough times only make our job harder. And as people get more desperate, it gets more dangerous for us and the law abiding citizens. We will never forget our brothers who paid the ultimate sacrifice doing battle in this hellhole so its citizens can sleep safe at night! The majority of southwest Florida’s violent felons live in our jurisdiction, and we are the only ones keeping these animals from taking over the rest of the zoo! . Show us some appreciation and respect and prove your sincerity in a contract our families can survive with!

longwinded...sounds like you should negotiate the contract :shock:

Long Winded truth, I'm not going to bash you because you've brought up some valid points. Some of them I agree with, and a few of your thoughts I don't. This city isn't based upon anything commercial, the only thing this city excels at is developing more and more section 8 housing projects which means even more work for us! This city is so f'n cheap they don't even buy us boots. The senior guys and gobs have gotten new patrol cars, new mdt's , a 10%- 16% increase in salary last contract, rifles, and you guys have control of most of the best details in the city. You guys have put in the time, and you deserve to get that, but please don't cry me a river about not getting a pay raise! The city has been giving millions of tax dollar breaks to all the new businesses in the city, walmart, best buy , circuit city,kol's and let's not forget the cherry deal Publix got for opening a store downtown! Doesn't this department use Comstat as their Ten Commandments for patrol ? Well these same Comstat stats showed that crime during the Civilian Daniels era went down 53% , I ask you were we rightfully compensated? Hell No! You want this city to turn around? Let's start tearing down section 8 housing in this city .which drains our services to no end, FMFD, EMS, and costs outrageous hospital bills when we need medical services. You want to know why crime went down in the Michigan ave. corridor ? Its a direct result of tearing down Michigan Court? They all fled out of the city and surprisingly crime went through the roof in Lehigh!

I think we both can agree that this PBA board needs a professional negotiator ? I want all street cops old and new to get at least a lump sum of 6%. the city manager gets 5% we should get 6%. The cops taking the buy out have gotten theirs and should be excluded from this. We were told our union dues would go down after we got more members from LCSO and Hendry, have you seen your union dues go down? High insurance rates, higher dental rates, and paying more into our pension when does it stop? One of the top GOBs comes into briefings and asks us to give more money out of our check for activities, and yet there is money to have a Christmas square dance and they let Daniels use all our money for his retirement party . How about using this money to have a Christmas retirement party to those buy-out cops who put their lives on the line for 20 or more years, making sure this city was safe. No Recognition for those cops HuHH? See No EVIL ,Hear No Evil Dawgs!