PBA Negotiations

What I want to know is, why was the Sheriff for the union, before she took office. She thought it was a good idea and would support it, but now we can't even get a contract signed. Now we have to attend a mandatory meeting, to tell us all the great things we have, new carpet, new desks, letters that keep falling of the wall a secretary for the Chief of Staff and General Counsel. Oh yeah, that helps put food on my table. Why doesn't the Chief of Staff attempt to survive on our salary, miss school functions, or better yet miss Christmas with your family, because you are protecting and serving. Oh that's right, she's too good for those things...

Thanks for all your support Sheriff...the message is the same as the last administration, only the faces have changed.

To employee, if you are that unhappy, why do you continue to work there? There is an easy solution, submit your resignation.

We will be holding a PBA meeting at Dee's Place at 5:00pm till whenever on 01/11/2007. All barganing Unit Members are welcome at the meeting. We will be discussing the current proposed contract and a poll vote will be conducted to see if we want the proposed contract. I will then contact our attorney and advise him of the results of our poll.

As everyone knows by now, the vote which took place last week with the PBA did not go well. The vote was 78% not to accept the contract and 22% to accept the contract. I as well as our attorney did not feel that a turn out of 14 people was a good basis to call for an empass.

On the 18th Sheriff Benton had the mandatory meeting with all of the Sgt's and rank and file. I was not able to be at the meeting due to the flu. Several people have voiced there concerns that if we do not accept the Sheriff's contract, our pay raises will be locked up until the contract is passed. The Sheriff can still continue on with her pay scale as well as a pay raise if she wishes. If it were to go to an empass, it does not tie the Sheriff's hands as far as any monitary increases according to our attorney. The monitary increases will be up to the discression of the Sheriff. I have also heard the rumor that if this goes to empass that the Detention Bureau members would receive their step increase but the L.E. Bureau would not. Throughout all of the negotiation process, all we have heard is that the Sheriff will keep everything in parity. I would hope that the Sheriff would not do this and I wouldn't put alot of faith in a rumor.

I have had several senior members who have voiced their concerns over the longevity issue. I know the sheriff advised you as well as me that her wishes are to establish guidelines as to what will be required to qualify for longevity. I for one do not feel that community service should be a part of the requirements but that is my opinion only. I do feel that further education weather it be in the form of college or advanced training should be.

If we are to ever get this contract taken care of we as the Law Enforcement unit are going to have to take it to a vote with a good turnout. Whether it goes the PBA way or the Sheriff's way so be it. I want to see this come to a close as well as everyone else.

The Sheriff also said the "longevity" raises would be based on the "evaluations of job performace", and not years on the job. Am I missing something here, or is she defining "merit" raises, which would require evaluations, where as longevity would be based on "years of service".

This is also to be "re-visited" or opened at "a later date". Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this tie up the one area stipulated in the contact to be "re-visited" and therefore no other areas can be "re-visted" over the course of the next three years (contract length). If this is an area she wishes to revisit later, why is this on us, rather than in addition to the one on behalf of the employees.

Just thought I'd ask.

Tom,

Any updates for the contract? Is there a chance to get the real information out before a vote? Here meeting was dandy, but she made it seem like take this contract or get nothing.

Here is where we are at right now. Several of us sat down with David Ham last thursday and discussed several items. The main concern for Mr. Ham was the diciplinary article. The article was written as if we were in agreement with the policy. As we all know, there is no new policy on diciplinary as of yet with all of the new G.O.'s coming out.

The second area of concern was the one opener for the duration of the three year contract. We wil have to use this one opener to negotiate longevity next year and that will be it for openers.

I think most unit members are in agreement with the duration of the contract (three Years) and the 2% increase each year of the contract.

I have spoke with several members and are still needing members who will be willing to meet with David Ham and two other high ranking PBA members who will be here is Sebring on April 5th to discuss our options. We are trying to have one or two members from each squad or unit to be present. We don't care if you want the current offer or wish to decline the offer. These PBA officials want to hear options from both sides. If you are interested in meeting with these officials you know how to contact me.

We are very close to a decision and now is when we need to come together and get a final answer. I do not feel that fourteen members casting votes is an accurate indicator of what the members want. As soon as we meet with these officials we will have a meeting and discuss what they feel needs to be done.

To answer the employee, how can you say she offered nothing, when she has already has given us all kinds of raises and other financial perks like on-call pay or holiday pay we never had before to name a few, over the last two years as well as lots of equipment we never had before and none of us are driving really old ragged out cars like we used to. I thought I heard her explain the offer and say she will not give us anything else on her own until we have a contract. Is that nothing?

Also to Tom, thanks for all of your hard unrewarding work that you are doing on this. But I think that the statement about the two percent per year is incorrect. From what I recall, it is year one (this 06-07 budget) that the last phase of the pay plan will go into place in April, 2007.....this means the one years guys will receive .5% percent increase........all the way up to us ten year guys getting a 5% increase and everyone else falls somewhere in between. This on top of the step increase on your anniversary, which after April will be 4%. So some deputies will get as much as an 8 or 9% increase within the next year.

Then in year two (07-08 year) it will be a 2% adjustment to each step in the pay plan for all years (plus the 4% step, which means 6% increase) and the beginning of talks about longevity for year three.

Then in year three (08-09 budget year) the payment of agreed upon longevity and the step increase of 4%.

So that really means a lot more raise than just 2% a year for three years.

The above with all of what has already happened is NOT nothing. Let's get on with doing our job.

To Member
I believe you are correct in your numbers but I would have to look in our notes to be sure. All members will have to wait on their next step increase and the one half of one percent incerease until we "ALL" make a decision on this contract. AS I said, several members from the Tallahasse PBA office will be here Thursday April 5th to hear our input. You guys pay these guy's salary. If you want to be heard you need to show up or have a representitive from your squad or unit bring your ideas to the table. The 2% isn't that bad when you add it to the step. But when you don't have any more steps it's not that good. That's why we need to deal with the longevity now. Remember the longevity affects over 25% of the members and within the current proposed three year contract it will be over 30%.