Ask the PBA

Matt,


It seems after the state went to a two week cycle for our time on People's First that I am not accruing the correct amount of annual leave hours. Prior to the switch I received 10.83 hrs a month and now I only receive 10 hrs a month ( 5 hrs per two weeks). Am I missing something here?

[Matt Puckett]

Matt,


It seems after the state went to a two week cycle for our time on People's First that I am not accruing the correct amount of annual leave hours. Prior to the switch I received 10.83 hrs a month and now I only receive 10 hrs a month ( 5 hrs per two weeks). Am I missing something here?

Nope, it just seems confusing because of how they list it now, but it works out the same. Under Rule 60L.34.0041 you earn either 10.833 hours monthly or 5 hour biweekly. 10.833 times 12 months equals 129.99 hours. 5 times 26 pay period (52 weeks divided by 2) equals 130 hours. Remember some months have five weeks. So it is the same total number of hours earned: 130 hours.

Can a PERC hearing settlement be over turned or can the agency be held accountable after the settlement has been signed if new information has surfaced? For example lets say an employee had a termination letter but an agreement was reached before PERC, so the letter was withdrawn but the employee had to resign. Now said employee has an a resigned in lieu of termination. it was found out that a month before the resigned employees IA, there was another employee who was arrested but there was no IA for that employee, so no punishment. Does the resigned employee have a case due to the agency not conducting IAs equally, or administering punishment equally, or is the resigned employee just out of luck?

Out of luck probably imo.

I ran this by legal and this is the answer:

Now as to the one employee having an IA and another not, that would be a disparate treatment argument possibly. But that would be argued if the case had gone to a hearing. So now that the settlement has been signed and accepted by PERC unless there is a breach of contract as a result of one of the conditions agreed upon not being upheld there is nothing that can be done to withdraw the settlement and proceed to PERC.

Sorry. On the other hand, if there is more to the story and you want to discuss it with our legal department please contact us.

Unfortunately it was your legal department that got me to take the deal, she did not want to go to PERC, did not really seem to want to fight. Now I can't get a job in law enforcement because marked void and sealed and placed in the back of my file doesn't really mean just that. My ATMS reads... resigned in lieu of termination. What pisses me off is this guy gets arrested and nothing happens to him, actually he was promoted. I wasn't arrested and I get screwed. That guy sucked at his job while... never mind, just isn't right.

[Matt Puckett]

Ash Williams, executive director of the State Board of Administration addressed the cabinet yesterday and stated that the FRS pension had reached $137 billion, an 11 percent increase from last year.

Good news

Matt, can we jnow the position on our union in reference to a funding source or reocurring funds and fight for a step plan for fhp next year? I think this will probably be the last pay raise in many years to come, just because of the background with the legislators and the state. We really need to be in par with other leo agencies in ref to pay. Please if you can inform us what the union thinks about this matter and thank you for your hard work this year.

[Matt Puckett]

Matt, can we jnow the position on our union in reference to a funding source or reocurring funds and fight for a step plan for fhp next year? I think this will probably be the last pay raise in many years to come, just because of the background with the legislators and the state. We really need to be in par with other leo agencies in ref to pay. Please if you can inform us what the union thinks about this matter and thank you for your hard work this year.

Well, the union is all of you... so if that's what the membership wants to push for then that's the direction we head towards.

Is it true that PBA is fighting the Region concept down here in Troop F. I hear that there will be a meeting that the Director and Command staff will ask Sgt's, Cpl's, and Tpr's what is going on down here. Is any of this true?

[Matt Puckett]

Is it true that PBA is fighting the Region concept down here in Troop F. I hear that there will be a meeting that the Director and Command staff will ask Sgt's, Cpl's, and Tpr's what is going on down here. Is any of this true?

Well, we have received a lot feedback/concerns on the region concept. Your chapter is working to schedule a meeting just like the you one describe above. Hopefully, the meeting will be well attended and everyone will express their opinions and listen to each other.

[NE FL GUY]

What is this "Region concept" and is it something the rest of us will have to face?

What is this "Region concept" and is it something the rest of us will have to face?

The regional concept is very simple and complicated at the same time. Troop-F has 10 counties, before it used to have independent districts (Naples-Ft Myers-Venice-Etc). In order to reduce supervisory positions, Vazquez though it was a great idea to split the Troop in half "North/South". Now the North and South are composed of 5 counties each.

What that means for example: a South sergeant supervises 10 individual Troopers spread across 5 different counties. When you are the only sergeant on-duty, you have to supervise 5 counties. If you ask me, is nearly impossible to effectively supervise 10 Troopers when they are two and three counties away. Is like saying a Trooper works in Orlando but the sergeant is in Tampa.

The South district for example was left with only one District Lieutenant, they did away with the other two. That Lt is in charge of over 90 Troopers and 7 sergeants, on top of all the other admin stuff. That is the reason why the sergeants in Troop-F are being forced to take over all the Lieutenant's responsibilities ( ex: wrecker inspections, conduct entire DUI checkpoints by yourself, full complaint investigations, attend meetings with other agencies, and the list gets larger. Anyways, I doubt any other Troop will adopt the regional concept, they now realize that it doesn't work and is ineffective. Vazquez thought it was a great idea at the time but is backfiring on him, morale among the supervisory ranks in Troop-F is very low. Hope that explains some of the question