Tax reform = termination of 99 SSO employees?

[News Flash]

Tax reform = termination of 99 SSO employees?
Sheriff Bill Balkwill said he figures he would have to cut 99 officers and civilians from his 1,050-person department if a tax reform goes through and if county officials make him cut $10 million from his budget. Employees could not be cut from the jail or from court services, so the reductions would have to come primarily from road patrols, he said.
Click here (http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/BREAKING/70502012/-1/BLOG21) for the full story.

Looks like working for SSO is about to end?! :shock:

Great we save money from no property tax but then we dont get a raise and we also get a possible severigns package thanks have a nice day.

Unbelieveable. Sorry Sheriff,, Public safety can not be cut short. Its time to go to the Governor and tell the county no way make your cuts elsewhere. You have that power so tell the county to pack a lunch.

Go to the Gov? He's the one promising to roll the taxes back, so you know he isn't going to impose a sheriff budget.

Guess we could layoff 99 employees or 5 majors and their tahoes.

you know he and charlie crist are very tight, I don't see the county getting away with cutting our budget

figures the 1st thing he would cut is patrol, amazing

yes, the sheriff is MORE POWERFUL than jim ley and the county commission. he can tell them to get lost if he wants and go directly to the governer. sheriff balkwill is the most powerful person in the county!

What a crock of $#@&!!

That is pretty drastic! There has to be a better way to cut the budget. If that was to happen, guaranteed that there will be a new sheriff in town and some new faces in the commission.

Go to the Gov? He's the one promising to roll the taxes back, so you know he isn't going to impose a sheriff budget.

Guess we could layoff 99 employees or 5 majors and their tahoes.
IMO BB threatened to cut-back on the patrol division as a threat to the commissioners. If the patrol division is cut back more, then we could not answer all the calls-for-service, such as barking dog calls, family disturbances where one party has already left, grand thefts (they can drive to the SSO themselves), and other non-emergency calls. If we cut-back on the patrol division, then the citizenry is going to scream bloody murder to the commissioners -- so maybe the commissioners better not ask us to cut our budget back to 10 million.

At this point, it's all just "political posturing." The fight isn't here yet. Threatening to cut back on the patrol division is just "political posturing." If we're going to cut-back on the SSO patrol division, then we might as well carve up the county and split it between the four municipalities and let them annex it all and let them provide police services.

you know he and charlie crist are very tight, I don't see the county getting away with cutting our budget
I didn't realize Crist was a drinker! :lol:

You idiots who think this is a luaging matter or just BB postering could not be further from the truth. Just do a search of other newspapers and you'd see other counties are facing the same thing. Think about it, if they roll back taxes 5-6 years, thats a lot less money coming in from the state to county governments. All departments were asked to prepare for drastic budget cuts. I guess the good news is they are still debating this in Tallahassee, but if it passes, BB will see a HUGE budget cut. Yes, he can appeal to the Gov, but a new governor is not going to side with ONE sheriff, when all other sheriff's would get in line and the gov would have to play pick and chose. Not going to happen.

Word on the streets from senior staff is that patrol would not be cut, but ALL specialized units would come to an end. I heard he even said SRO's would be back on the street, and if true, that's a change for BB golden boys. I supervise a specialized unit and I would likely be back on patrol, so this is not any laughing matter.

In my 30 plus years at The SSO.. This same dilema occured several times. In the end, the sheriff took less, the County gave more, and they comprimised. Several Sheriff's threatened to appeal their budgets to the Governor, but none did. Because in the end, the Governor can only recommend what the budget should be, and after all the smoke clears, we are here in our small sandbox of the world and we have to play with the county commissioners and the other county depts.

If cuts had to be made, it would be from terminations, retirements, and non-essential services. Vacant positions would not be filled, and the PSA's would get the boot like SPD did in the 90's. Oh man do you think the 38+ Sro's might have to shag a call ?? Not in your wildest dreams !! BB says.. "But we have a contract with the school board. We can't pull SRO's from the schools to answer a domestic fight. Try taking self defense classes and our Citizen LE Academy Class in order to defend yourself ! "

if your id is lower then 2100 and your sworn you will be ok. if higher well who knows. :cry:

DIVIDE 99 INTO 10 MILLION DOLLARS, THEN TELL ME WHICH COMBINATION OF PATROL AND CIVILIAN PAY CHECKS TOTAL 10 MIL. THIS AINT ADDING UP UNLESS THEY CRAP-CAN A WHOLE BUNCH OF CAPT'S AND MAJORS THERE NOT SAVING THAT KIND OF DOUGH.

DIVIDE 99 INTO 10 MILLION DOLLARS, THEN TELL ME WHICH COMBINATION OF PATROL AND CIVILIAN PAY CHECKS TOTAL 10 MIL. THIS AINT ADDING UP UNLESS THEY CRAP-CAN A WHOLE BUNCH OF CAPT'S AND MAJORS THERE NOT SAVING THAT KIND OF DOUGH.
When I was hired umpteen years ago, we had sixteen (16) patrol-deputies to cover the entire county and we had six staff members to supervise us. Today, we only have sixteen (16) patrol-deputies, but we have 21 staff members to supervise us. Will these cuts come from the sixteen (16) patrol-deputies or from the 21 staff members? :shock:

When BB said he would have to get rid of civilians, I am wondering who will do the jobs that we do? If he puts sworn deputy's in place of us, where is the savings there? I cant imagine any deputies taking a big salary cut, to equal what we get? Just worried about being unemployed.... :(

Please do not feel you are "Just a Civilian", as civilians are an extremely crucial and important part of any law enforcement operation. Those who say differently lack understanding of law enforcement operation. While I am not at liberty to state my name here for reasons I will share later, I come on this site to get a grasp of how things run within your agency. Its rather sad to read the pickering, name-calling and more that goes on here. Yet, I respect everyone's right to make postings here. When the postings go beyond, that is simply unacceptable.

Back to civilians. You are very real people, with real families and real needs. Civilians should not be subject to getting the scraps left behind. the CEO or Agency Head (in this case SHERIFF) should treat civilians and ALL employees with dignaty and respect. He should be VERY visible and should spend considerable tiime with all factions of employees. That is the truest way to gauge the needs of your employees. I read about the car issue here and that is petty.

I think this agency has great potential, unfortunately morale is suffering some. Although, its easy for a couple of very upset employees to paint a picture that everyone is unhappy. I don't think that's the case at all. I speak to many deputies and civilians who say they are happy and enjoy working for the sheriff's office. But, never-the-less, more can be done by staff to boost morale. Pay has been addressed and should always be a top concern. I recently learned that overtime doesn't start at 40-hours here in Sarasota, and that should be remedied.

Anyway, I could ramble on, but won't. In my past 25+ years of law enforcement, I absolutely valued the many civilians I worked with and many I still call friends. Thanks for the job you do!

Here is the deal folks. There are a few different dynamics at work.

1) Jim Lay does not like the Sheriff's Office, regardless of who the sheriff is because he has no control over what we do.
2) Jim Lay is trying to play the county commissioners against the sheriff and has been doing so for years.
3) Jim Lay has identified TRASPOORTATION as the county's #1 priority, not public safety, such as fire, health and law enforcement.
4) Jim Lay will continue to feed $ to the pet projects of the county commissioners because they are the ones that pay him.
5) If we (all SSO employees) do not get together as one and politic against Jim Lay we will continue to have this fight every year.

Jim Lay is a self serving ego maniac. He will find funds for rails to trails, the purchase of eco sensitive lands, eco friendly county vehicles, keep beach parking free, fund art exhibits, butification projects and if I heard correctly, drive a county leased Mercedes or Volvo or what ever it is.

Jim Lay was buddy buddy with the former county Emergency Service Director..who is now unemployed...that gave the fire department such a hard time. It was not until the firefighters brough forward the huge problem with Lay and the ES director that the county commission put pressure on Lay to move him. He moved him to another county job and there were problems there also. Lay eventually had to fire him or he would have had more issues on his hands than bad relations with the fire department.

Now there is a well liked and respect ES director and Lay has to play nice with him because the ES director is known to be the right person to run the show by the county commissioners and the fire department. So now Lay has his sights set on the SSO because he will not have any fallout by the SSO having problems and it is the next largest budget he can axe. Why will he not have any fallout? Because we are so disorganized we would never do anything like the firefighters did, take a no confidence vote on COUNTY OFFICIALS, send letters to the county commissioners pointing out the problems with the axe swinging by Lay. And the fire department had a run of bad response times where the press got a hold of it and ran.

The county commissioners have recently said they need to have someone involved in our budget process. Did Jim Lay forget to tell them this has been happening the past three years? Did Jim Lay forget to tell the commissioners that the budget folks have not identified any fat in our budget? Did Jim Lay forget to tell the county commissioners that the county back charges the SSO for all kinds of services, such as IT stuff, and each year automatically adds this to the SSO budget artificially inflating the budget? I don't think he has. Jim Lay is a skunk that dresses like a cat so as to not be identified. Unfortunately for him he still stinks like a skunk. Unfortunatety for the citizens and county employees our county commissioners have a poor sence of smell.

Try to reach a county employee by phone. Most of the time you cannot even find a real person in any county department unless you know the phone extension to an individual. I have tried reach environmental service, the water department, and left messages that go unanswered. I have had the same experience in Building, Solid Waste Management. It is like this with each department with the exception of the elected officials, Sheriff, Tax Collector, Clerk of Court etc... who have retained receptionists. The call center Lay invented is a joke and the citizens are getting upset by the lack of responsivness by the county.

But Jim Lay continues to cut the county department's budget each year. Why does everyone need to continue cutting their budgets when the county tax base and revenues continue to grow? Where is Jim Lay spending the "cut" funds? On special projects for the commissioners. Why doesnt the Herald Tribune report on this activity? Oh, they did some, when Jim Lay's wife sold the county some property at an extremely high proffit when the property prices jumped so high it wasn't funny. OK, so she reportedly refused her commission, but did her employer? Was her employeer grateful enough to give her a bonus that year? I don't know, just askign. Perhaps the H-T can find out and tell us.

It is time that we mobilize as one and aim our collective strength at Jim Lay and expose him for what he really is. You need to uderstand, most county employees do not like him because of what he has done to their departments. There is strength in numbers and if we tell the county commissioners we are tired of there pet projects that Lay continues to fund at the expense of public safety and services county wide perhaps then they will understand and not only change there ways but also de-scent the skunk. Something stinks around here and it isn't red tide this time.