New Contract

The facts that I am about to discuss come from a very well respected PBA rep. The final language on the contract has not been finalized, but here are what we have so far.

The Good:
The raises are as follows: 3.5%, 3.5%, and 3.0% for the next three years. There is also going to be an increase to the high hazard duty rate of about $30 dollars bi-weekly. There will be an extra S.T.E.P raise at 10 years of 5% added. There will also be specialty pay for SWAT 5%, K-9 5%, and FTO's 5% - but only when they are training someone. There will also be a shift differential of about 2.5% for MIds and 2% for afternoons. There are some other minor details but none of them are deal breakers or makers.

The Bad:

Our disability will drop from 75% to 66%. There will be wording that if you are involved in a catastrophic incident then you will be able to receive the 75% disability. However, at this time the wording is so vague that for example an exposure where you contract aids would probably place you in the 66% category. However,that is not for sure,again the wording is very disputable. It can go either way.

Secondly we must give up the insurance for life when you retired for anyone hired after October 1, 2006. This sounds fine at first because most people do not think it will affect them. However, this means that in the future when the majority of the department is new and does not have this benefit they can trade it away for those of you that have it,for whatever they want. Do to contract law none of us can be grandfathered in. The mayor will be putting wording in the City Charter, but do not confuse that with being grandfathered in. All it would take is for us ten years from now to get rid of the benefit and it will be gone for all that are still here. You must do the math to see how much it would cost you to pay your own insurance when you retire until the day you die. Again this will only happen if the future members of our department want it. It is not a sure thing but it is a very real possibility. Remember if we take a benefit away from them why should they not take a benefit from us?

Thirdly is the matter of our insurance this April. If we sign this contract our insurance will be left open and when it goes up in April we will have no barganing power to do anything about it. We will be under contract for the next three years. The insurance might only go up a little or a lot no one can predict this. The only prediction is that it will go up.

One must also remember that some of these issues will not affect everyone in the department. Someone that is just a couple of years away from retiring has very little to lose and a lot to gain. Some of you with a lot of time left have less to gain and a lot to risk. Whatever decesion you make please inform yourself so you can do what is best for you and your family. I wold urge you to keep the future in mind, but you must do what is best for you. Also press your PBA reps for answers that is why you voted for them. Ask them specifics on the contracts and their own opinions. Remember that they sat across from the mayor and probably have a better feel for what is best. Good luck all.

Thank you for putting all of this out there like that. Guys, we can't allow ANYONE to take away ANY benefit that the other officers before us fought hard for. I just discovered that when we retire our health insurane is covered for the rest of our live. This is a rare benefit. One that we cannot affort to loose. We will never have a take home car policy so forget even fighting for it. Another very important thing i learned recently is about the 185 fund. We cant let them have that either. Lets consintrate on the raises, shift differental, and hazardous duty pay.

YOU GUYS HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR LIFE???FREE???
NO WAY! IF TRUE,FORGET TAKE HOME,PAY RAISES,R U KIDDING ME? CANT BE!
NO DEPT. HAS THAT BENEFIT OR WOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH!
THATS EQUIVALENT TO 100'S OF THOUSADNDS OF DOLLARS PER EACH OFC, LIFETIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUST BE A MISTAKE?????????

CAN SOMEBODY CHECK WITH SOMEONE WHO KNOWS AND VEREFY IF ABOVE IS TRUE???

whats the scoop with garrido,swears to be the best cop hialeah ever had......a

"New Officers" leave to any other department, if you remain in Hialeah, you will never have a take-home vehicle. so leave while you can. Those of you who have more that 10 years, you are not going anywhere so stay put and admire Ofc. Juarez who got fired from our department and now has a take-home vehicle while working in sweetwater.

Is appreciated that the Honorable Mayor Robaina wants to open our contract and open the doors to negotiations. However, just leave it close if you are going to take things away. For some reason, our city administrators have this idea that all departments are equal and contract issues should be equal. They are wrong.

In any city, the firefighters and the police are the essential body of employees and followed by everyone else. With this, it is rediculous for someone to even say that the Police contract should be the same as the civilian.

Firefighters and the Police are forbidden by law to go on a strike. The civilians employees are not forbidden to strike, no doubt that if they do it they might just get fired and they should not do it, especially when there is a contract in effect. Now you can see why we are not equal, and that was just a small example.

Now think of this, currently we get 75% of our pay if we become disable while on duty. The city attorney on behalf of the mayor, wants our disability rating to be 66% instead of 75%. We cannot accept that as police officers.

If I was a paper pusher maybe I will say yes, what are the chances of getting shot while processing payroll or better yet, what are the chances of getting crash by a DUI while receiving a 911 phone call at communication.

Next time an armed robbery calls go out, we can ask the dispatcher when the bad guy is gone so we can move in; do not want to get disable if I will starve after. Rather work, make my overtime and survive.

Next time that HFD request to know if it is safe to move in, we should request to ask the civilian calling 911. What ever you do, just write your two tickets a day and answer your calls in a safe manner, don't try to be a hero, the City is showing how much they care by reducing your disability rate. And it will not help you to go to the detective section since they do not even have an oral board for those positions.

Guys and girls, we need to unite as one and show them that we care and that indeed we are different. At a minimum, we deserve a little more money so we do not have to work overtime, our disability should remain the same if not increase it.

You want take-home vehicles, go and apply at another department, it is against the Mayor's philosophy; it is not even a business decision, which tells me that they have the money. Our PBA representative should do their job right and keep us inform more often, they should not take matters into their own hands.

We want more money at least to bring us at the same level as other neighboring departments like MDPD. If no money in liquid cash, then a take-home will compensate for that but is agaisnt his philosophy. It was proven that a take-home vehicle, if we change the oil every other month, will save the City a lot of money. Leave the disability alone. More hazard pay for us, maybe special pay for FTO's,SWAT, and a special pay for patrol officer of 10% so we can get those lazy experienced detectives back in patrol and share their knowledge with the future of the department, the rookies.

For some reason, patrol is treated like the trash but if you really think about it, the uniformed division is the most highly visible out of the rest, should we be happy?

:x

We are glad that Garrido left to your department on time. Good luck with him.

It is true that our health insurance at the time of retirement is paid by the City; however, we are talking retirement. If we do not get a raise in lieu of retirement, we will starve. And what about if a misfortune takes place and we don't get to see the light of retirement, damn. We will die one day and it is just a matter of when. Are you ready for it? Today might just be your day.

there is no way the city of hialeah pays your HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!!
I NEED THE PRES. OF YOUR UNION OR SOMEONE WILLING TO POST NAME OR PLACE I CAN CALL OR GO TO CHECK! IF SO,YOU GUYS ARE THE ONLY P.D. I KNOW THAT WILL AND NO ONE CAN BEAT THAT! R U KIDDING ME? YOU HAVE NO CLUE!!
THE TAKE HOMES ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO HEALTH CARE,GET A GRIP!!!

hialeah human resources 305-883-8050

Rookies...Senior Guys...Patrol...Detectives...As long as we see ourselves in categories and not as HPD COPS we loose, they win!!!!!!!!! as a whole we have never gotten involved in the DEPARTMENT and I do not mean POLITICS. I'm talking about the way we are treated, the equiptment or lack there of...WHERE IS THE PBA during the year???? Where are the REPS??? John Gerry is the only REP with a proven track record and he was pushed to run... STEP UP GUYS, you have to fight for what you want.

We have a chance to start with a clean slate with Robaina, lets not repeat the mistakes of the past and start with the name calling, lets negotiate like the professionals we profess to be. Lets get our facts together...STATS, SURVEYS, STUDIES...Lets play it SMART. Let the Reps know we want the Mayor to know where we stand, DON"T let that SPINELESS WEASEL CITY ATTORNEY play us, he's SCUM and hates us. To the REPS watch that creep. :evil:

The largest part of the PD is not even vested, WAKE UP...GET INVOLED make HPD Contract what we trully are; A GREAT POLICE FORCE. Our quality is measured by US not what they have given us. We have proved this time & time again. Its about time that our pay and benefits reflect the quality of cops we are.

GOOD LUCK TO US ALL