Losing The Police Dept.

i am writing this post as not only a spouse of a miami springs police officer, but as a concerned miami springs resident for many, many years. since an original post on this forum dated 06/11/2010, the police officers of miami springs have taken another blow. they now contribute a whopping 16.9% of their pay to their pension. please, round of applause for being the highest contributing police department. but wait, it gets better! thats not all, by october 2012, it will once again increase to an as yet undetermined amount. officers within the department have filed for bankruptcy, found second jobs and are losing their homes. go ahead, ask around....over half of the police department is in some sort of financial difficulty. officers to my knowledge, cannot support their families due to what can only be viewed as a major pay cut. Might i add that there are 3 "top" individuals among the admin. that do not contribute to the pension. how is that possible? well, they are part of some loophole that took place a few years back. its a luxury that everyone else on the department does not currently have and will never have. fortunately for those 3, they are doing extremely well. from my understanding this loophole allows them to retire and receive well over 100% of their salary after their gone. the longer they stay past their retirement, the more money they receive. so who is responsible for their pension contribution? well, that falls on the city of course and ultimately on us the taxpayers. the city pays a unnecessary amount of money just to keep those 3 in place. to add insult to injury, the city wants to allow these 3 individuals to enter the pension drop program, giving them an extra 5 years to collect more money and suck the police pension dry past their 25 year retirement mark. the city has been made aware that the pension contributions made by the police officers are not correct and could be considered unethical. they are not in compliance with statute 185 (which is a statute that governs pensions).
the city is choosing not to rectify the situation, and are playing hardball. the officers have also been without a contract for over 3 years. is this how we choose to treat those who lay their life on the line, and keep our beautiful city safe? the city claims that they don't have the money to help its police officers, yet several pay increases have been made to department heads, including the city manager, recreational department director and finance director. this after the city government said that our former city manager made to much money, and they were looking to cut costs. the math just doesn't add up. at this rate, i don't know what will happen. we are on the verge of losing our public works department and the police department is crumbling before our eyes. what is our entrusted city government doing to this city? as citizens we need to back our police department, we need to be more involved and we need to spread the word. i encourage everyone reading this to contact our government officials and let the know how you feel. as a spouse i see the stress and desperation of the one i love daily. they shouldn't feel this way.they should be proud to serve not only the citizens of miami springs, but represent their department to the fullest. but how can you represent a department who isn't supporting you.

It's time to go public and expose the problems that the Miami Springs Police officers are facing. Let the citzens decide if they want to let a few geedy indivduals destroy the police department and the city. :idea: :oops:

Well done, free speech and concerned spouse. It's about time the lid gets blown off this place. Sometimes exposing and embarrassing someone gets the ball rolling. A little egg on the face, just might do the trick. We are not the "perfect" department the Chief paints us out to be to the citizens and city government. There is a lot going on, that the public is unaware of. I thinks is time to let them know. The moral is at an all time low, police vehicles are uncared for with un-repaired damage and fading decals. The hiring process is terrible, and we seem to be scraping the bottom of an empty barrel, when it comes to new hires. Our FTO program is terrible and we have the blind leading the blind. Since when has quantity, been better that quality when it comes to productivity. I could run up and down NW 36 St all day as well, but i prefer to do a more well rounded form of police work. Lets protect and serve our residents, not bash them with 3-4 tickets at a time just to bring in the money. Last time I checked police work was not a business, it was a service. We reward those who make horrible decisions, and reprimand those who do a good solid job. Some of us are tired of being bullied and talked to for petty reasons. While the top admin spoken about above looks to line their pockets with more money, at the expense of their officers with the city mangers help. I guess they forgot that they were once in our shoes, when this drop program nonsense was shot down a few years back for the same reasons it is today. You want your drop program, so you can make more money when you retire, you want to stay on top until you rot in your chair and grasp your position of power until there is no life left, fine be our guest. We'll negotiate, you can have what you want, just stand by us and LEAD. Help us fix our pension. Do the right thing for once. Leave behind a legacy, not a cloud of smoke.

June 14th, air em' out! Lets take a stand, show some presence!

I love my job and I love Miami Springs. They gave me a job when 10 other departments turned me down due to mental instability. They make me feel at home. Thank you Miami Springs for the opportunity, now I must go take my meds.

I've got 3 kids and a mortgage. I can't wait for my paycut in October. I already live paycheck to paycheck as it is.

A couple elections ago, there were 3 retired public safety officers running for MS council. All were pro police and labor with public safety as a top priority. After a screening by the PBA all were endorsed for their respective seats. The local MS FOP decided to play their own brand of politics. Without even interviewing the PBA endorsed aformentioned retired public safety candidates, the FOP endorsed and helped their opponents get elected. Sometimes playing the wrong political game comes back to haunt you. In this case to the detriment of the MS Police rank and file and the residents they serve. Concerned MS police need to look into their own organization and determine if the political manipulations truely passed the smell test. If not, the only way to help your cause in the future is to ensure that their are no more games with internal politics which result in lack of support for MSPD.

Now we will be paying 22.6% into the pension...WTF!!!!! When are we going to take a stand against this city and show them they can't **** with us like this. It's time to go to every media station and expose the city for the fraud it is. It's time to protest every weekend until something gets done! We need to make the news every night and put the pressure on these cowards!!!

This department is so screwed up and its slowly falling apart. The admin are just sitting back and watching it go to hell. I mean this has gotten out of hand. Enough is enough, we have officers who have to get a SECOND job to survive. While others fly around in their airplane all weekend and take RV camping trips. It must be nice to live without a care, and over 100% of their pay waiting for them at the end of the road. I feel a big wave of embarrassment coming. This place has no idea whats in the near future. The media is on line one and we are going to bring the fight to their doorstep! Prepare, because its going to get nasty! Enough with this prancing around the bush shit. Lets show them we refuse to submit to the lashes we have been handed. We played by the rules, and it fell on deaf ears. Now its time to get dirty. I mean seriously, look at our ****ing city council. Is this who we endorsed, a bunch of cowards??? The boss may or may not be on his way out, but he is definitely leaving a large wet turd behind to be remembered by.

Those damn latinos ruined this department, but the south shall rise again!

[Unregistered]

I love my job and I love Miami Springs. They gave me a job when 10 other departments turned me down due to mental instability. They make me feel at home. Thank you Miami Springs for the opportunity, now I must go take my meds.

Wow Miami Springs PD hires retards and baker acts. That's great to know.

[Unregistered]

Folks, no need to worry. Once I leave MPD. With my great pension and 1% fund. Then I'm appointed as your A/C. After I get my pay and benefits worked out. I won't forget you all. I've dealt with these issues at Miami PD. When the City was not giving step raises to the officers. I pushed hard for the staff to finally get their raise. and mostly we all got like 10% more. The officers some were lucky to get almost 3%. However we did make it so yes, they too will have to pay more into their retirement and pick up some more of the medical cost. Pay a little more towards their PPV program but I got it done. The union will have all believe they did the officers a great favor but in truth it was us in staff that made it happen.
Now with several years of the officers not getting any step raises. That will change. Now I don't believe the City SHOULD pay the officers for the past frozen raises or reinstate any lost benefits. They will push for a 2 year contact. With no more then at most 1 1/2% for each year. That I believe is more then fair for all parties concerned. If you take into consideration the cost of ALL the benefits you get. Your pay, medical, vacation, sick time. Uniform allowances. Now if you compare this to what the City needs to pay for vehicles, taking care of the cars. Support personal and staff. You will see that well. How to put this, learn to live within your means. We all need to buckle down. You all can't get like us in staff low 6 figures a year. Please don't take offence to this. I'm a straight shooter and tell it like it is. Give me time. You all will see. I get the job done!