supervisor's contract

Everyone knows Bama is all about Bama but this time he really out did himself. The majority of the supervisors are getting just a 4% raise with the proposed contract.

Bama is getting the same 4%. He also negotiated an additional 5% for the two traffic sergeants. (Of course he’s one of them) Don’t forget about the $1500.00 - $2000.00 cash bonus that is proposed for being a senior sergeant. And to boot he got an extra $20.00 put in there per paycheck for the officers who drive the command bus. (Of course he is a bus driver as well)

So while most of us are looking at a 4% raise, Bama, our president, is looking at 11% plus. Bama has always been self serving but the difference is this time he isn’t even trying to hide it.

Vote this contract down until it is fair for all the dues paying members!

Tell us what you really think.

It’s refreshing to see others are now starting to open their eyes, and are realizing that Bama is out of control. However, as a group, we are all to blame for allowing him yet another opportunity to negotiate our contract. Some might have forgotten the last contract, where Bama used his “one for you, two for me” contract negotiation skills. He was able to get a select few senior supervisors a 6% raise the first year of the contract, while the majority only got 4%. And guess who was in that select group – Bama. This go round, he’s adopted the “one for you, four for me” approach. And as the original post stated, he was damn blatant about it.

Lets’ start with the Traffic Team getting 5%. I guess it’s just pure coincidence that the Traffic Team got the extra money, while K-9 and Community Policing got shut out. What ever happened to solidarity – all for one and one for all? And please, spare me the bullshit of “never turn away money when the city offers it.” You did it the last contract when the city balked at giving Traffic, K-9 and Community Policing the extra 5%. The only difference this time is that now you’re in Traffic. We all know that Bama spends most of his time bullshitting with Staff, when he’s not out somewhere smoking his 5 packs of cigarettes each day. If you ever need to find him, just stop by Staff parking or look in Holloway’s office – just don’t waste your time looking for him out on the road. And God only knows what he’s discussing with them – probably the best ways to shield his $100K+ a year from the IRS. The traffic team officers, the ones who are also forced to flex their hours & work schedules, didn’t get this extra 5% in their contract - and they’re the one’s who are actually out their writing the tickets and taking calls for service. I challenge anyone to look in LERS to see how much effort Bama puts into his job assignment that justifies this extra 5%. Check to see how many tickets or reports Bama’s written this year - or for that matter, check Diebel’s activity as well. He also stand’s to profit handsomely from this malodorous deal – while K-9 and Community Policing get to stand on the outside and watch. Oh, and remember, while most supervisors and the vast majority of officers don’t have take home cruisers, Bama has TWO – a police Harley Davidson motorcycle and a new Crown Vic.

Now, how about that bonus. Like I said earlier, Bama and a select few got an additional 2% raise the first year in the last contract – NOT A 2% BONUS. That extra 2% compounds and increases your potential retirement monies, whereas a bonus is just a one time deal. Now mind you, I’m not knocking a check for almost $2K, but give me a break. Those supervisors who didn’t qualify for the 2% extra pay raise last contract should be the ones getting any EXTRA money.

And finally, let’s talk about the extra $20 a paycheck for being trained to operate the Command Bus. Last time I checked, no one put a gun to anyone’s head and forced them to sign up for the training to drive that bus. As a matter of fact, those who did received – FOR FREE AND ON CITY TIME – training that qualified them to operate ANY commercial vehicle. A nice plus if after you retire you what to drive a truck to make some extra cash. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but the bus goes out maybe once or twice a month! Again, I’m not knocking the fact that he got the city to agree to this. But in reality, this little golden nugget, the $2K bonus cash he and the others who got a 2% extra raise from the last contract stand to get, and the 5% assignment pay is a lot of money (cumulatively) that could have been distributed to ALL of the members, rather then just line Bama’s pockets and get him that much closer to making more money than the Chief.

As I see it, we have choices. We can put up with Bama’s self-serving shit, ratify this contact and watch as his wallet bloats to the size of his ego, or vote it down and go back to the negotiating table with the city. If the membership does vote it down, we should seriously consider hiring an outside person, a professional, to look over everything in this proposed contract to see of those pork barrel earmarks Bama has carved out for himself can be redistributed to everyone in this union. And Bama should have NOTHING to do with any future negotiations. Years ago, he was a guy who tirelessly fought for, and looked out for, everyone in the union. Now it’s obvious that he’s become a modern day ‘Boss Tweed,’ working hard to get himself the majority of the money, while the rest of us are just an afterthought. We don’t belong to the “Bamaland Union,” we belong to the Fraternal Order of Police Union. Here’s the definition of the word “fraternal”, Bama, in case you forgot what it means - existing between brothers or felt by one brother for another / showing friendship and mutual support between people or groups with the same interests or aims.

One last thing. I don’t want people to look at this post as a personal attack against Bama. Personally, I think he’s a hell of a guy. However, we’re dealing with a contract, OUR CONTRACT, and that means this is all about business. Business is business. Put your friendships and personal feelings aside, and keep focused on the bottom line. Because after the contract is signed is too late to start questioning why the biggest slices of the pie went to a select few, while you (the majority) only got a few crumbs.

Michael Meyers hit the nail on the head and his post would be hilarious if not for the sick feeling in my stomach of getting @#%&$! royally by the "Great Bama". The contract is so blatantly wrong that even the City had to walk out of the negotiations laughing how The FOP 4 President screwed his troops. Not to mention all of the "Union" time he probably got working so hard on the one way street contract.

Vote "NO" on this contract if for nothing else then to take his money away from him. The old saying never give the City back when they offer you something doesn't apply to Robbery committed by the Union President. Stand up to this Crime on principle alone people. It's no wonder he got thrown out of the State Lodge because of his actions there. Isn't there an oath for the President to reperesent all of us and not just himself? I think a Lawyer and a Court would think he failed miserably and should be held personally responsible for his reprehensible actions.

And in the CHief's supervisors meeting the Chief said there were no sacred cows in this agency. Think again, his ultra flexible work hours, comm center extra duty, his own fleet of cars for his people, in charge of a Traffic Team that doesn't work peak DUI hours, has anyone ever heard of another agency with that schedule, What the Fu@# ? It's finally time for us to pull the reins in as he has gone Code 8, just ask all the members jumping ship on him.

Wake up Staff and Supervisors !! :evil: :evil: :evil:

BAMA the SCAM-A at it again. There is always a vote of no-confidence to stop him from padding his pockets anymore!!

OMG, your traffic team is the freaking laughing stock of Pinellas County!!!

Once upon a time, not too long ago, your traffic team was DA BOMB! You sent several officers to Tally each year for getting 100+ DUIs.

Do you remember what a D. U. I. is? OH yeah, I forgot, you actually have to work from 11pm to 4am to GET FREAKIN' DUIs. NICE.

You have the WRONG dude running your traffic team. No weekends, no mids, no DUIs.

And he wants extra pay for all of his hard work on the traffic team.

BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

BAMA is a GREAT MAN !! His integrity is beyond question. How dare you accuse him of lining his pockets with more money then the rest of the supervisors.

You guys just misunderstand him.

Yours Truly


Benedict Arnold :lol: :roll: :lol:

Earth to STAFF !! Earth to STAFF !! WAKE UP STAFF !!!

Your CI is out of control. Time to spank the CI back into their role. Exit interview the outgoing Traffic Team members to find out why they are going. They probably won't tell you the truth because they know your tight ties with the CI but you never know.

Go back to weekends and late hours for the Team so they can be of real value to the spine of the agency and not to the spineless of the agency.

We will see if you are finally listening like you said you were in the meeting. It's really simple, OPEN your EYES to SEE, and LISTEN to the line supervisors and officers to get the real pulse of the agency and not the spinmeister's view.

Have a nice day.

Your CI is out of control.

Who is out of control?

I have to agree with this poster. I've been in traffic more years than I want to count. You had a fine traffic team for quite some time. What happened? SB left and it went down the tubes.



quote="Anonymous"]OMG, your traffic team is the freaking laughing stock of Pinellas County!!!

Once upon a time, not too long ago, your traffic team was DA BOMB! You sent several officers to Tally each year for getting 100+ DUIs.

Do you remember what a D. U. I. is? OH yeah, I forgot, you actually have to work from 11pm to 4am to GET FREAKIN' DUIs. NICE.

You have the WRONG dude running your traffic team. No weekends, no mids, no DUIs.

And he wants extra pay for all of his hard work on the traffic team.

BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:[/quote]

For clarification purposes, we are going to keep this short since the above guest neither did nor does work for CPD. The previously mentioned traffic lieutenant was not the driving force and the reason for the success of the traffic teams, it was the outstanding effort supplied by it’s officers and supervisors on those teams that did the real work. The lieutenant was a figurehead on a personal mission for himself, nothing more, nothing less and eventually got his wish.

Let’s not hijack this thread and keep on the real topics….

What will it take to get the traffic team back to its glory days?

the above guest neither did nor does work for CPD. The previously mentioned traffic lieutenant was not the driving force.

I bet that post was by Steve himself! How are your laser guns working there , buddy boy? :devil:

the above guest neither did nor does work for CPD.

Hmmm, actually how do you know that? Just by their "siggy"??

:shock:

Simple, only someone watching from afar who has never actually worked for him would think he was a king. It's a fact that he was well known across the state for not only his traffic programs but his demeanor, lack of tact and personality.

Lets keep on track and discuss the contract situation. Bashing someone who's no longer here is a waste of time and effort. Management didn't listen to any of our complaints then, so what makes you think they would listen now when it won't do any good. He seems to make his own problems for himself where ever he goes.

The last post was right. This topic isn’t about SB or the demise of our Traffic Team. I only brought it up to show that Bama’s justification for HIS 5% extra was full of shit. Now back to what’s really important, our proposed contract.

In my post, I said that cumulatively all of those “Bama Bonuses” added up to a lot of money the rest of the members could have shared. Here it is in black and white.

If, over the life of this upcoming contract, the money the city has already agreed to give the Traffic Team and the Command Bus drivers was pooled together, added to the money already put aside to pay for those 2.5% bonus checks, and then distributed it to among the 20 or so supervisors that have topped out, the bonus check multiplier would be at least 5.5% - and maybe even as high as 6%. In short, every bonus check would begin with a ‘4’ rather then a ‘1’ or a ‘2’.

The contract vote is next week. It doesn’t appear we’ll be able to get anything more out of the city. However our negotiating team can do a better job distributing the money the city has offered us to the MAJORITY of the membership.

VOTE “NO”

There is a rumor that Bama is looking to get a position with Noeske's crew and that this is his final contract. Makes sense since he is hooking himself up with little effort at hiding the obvious. He doesn't care what anybody else thinks because he is on his way out.

Any truth to it ?

Old Rumor, he didn't take the job.

From TPD Board after they voted down their contract. Health care costs $900 a month? WOW

I was impressed to see the number of officers who voted on the contract issue (807 of you). Even more impressive was the ability of a vast majority (539) to stick together in doing something rather difficult, voting down a proposed contract. I haven't seen that kind of unity in years.

On Friday (today) there will be a newspaper article in the Tampa Tribune by reporter Valerie Kalfrin. It will cover our voting down of the proposed contract with the City and try to explain to the public why. It is very important that the public understands our true motivation for voting "No" so they don't get the wrong impression that we're a bunch of greedy public servants. This Message Board will be swamped with citizens on Friday reading to find out what's going on. You have a rare opportunity to let them hear your voice and, perhaps, support your cause.

I realize that I am not your representative and that I don't speak on behalf of everyone. At the same time, I have spoken with a good number of officers and believe that the most pressing issue is Health Care Cost (competitive pricing while we are active employees and a coverage benefit when we retire). This level of importance was also revealed in the top two priorities of the PBA survey that we took. However, for whatever reason, these concerns were not adequately addressed in the proposed contract (from my point of view).

Citizens are probably not aware of the number of retired cops (even recently retired) who have had to come out of retirement in order to pay their health care costs. They are working at Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart and even taking civilian positions with the City just to get health care benefits. Many officers are still employed at the police department, years after qualifying for retirement, simply because they cannot afford to leave. Some of those who have retired will now be paying $948 a month (1/3 of their pension) in health care costs. That is unacceptable! Next, consider the decreased life expectancy of police officers (due to the job) and you'll begin to get the picture.

We realize that we have a dangerous but important job and we're not complaining about that. We simply want what we really need, and that’s a health care benefit. If we are unable to secure this benefit, then we will need a better pay package so we don't lose 25% - 33% of our pension as soon as we retire. It can mean the difference between an officer having to postpone his retirement for an additional 5 to 10 years. It's a quality of life issue for us.

Many officers have lost faith that we will get a health care benefit package and concentrate on the money issue (instead of the dead issue). Don't get me wrong, we need competitive pay too, but I think the most important issue here (and the most beneficial to us) is the health care package. It is my belief that we'd rather have the benefit.

So why dig our heels in and fight now? It's probably our best chance in the foreseeable future to get this accomplished. The City of Tampa's Property Tax revenues have increased 72% in recent years to $167.7 million. They have grown more than twice the rate of personal income growth in Florida during the past 6 years. Home prices in Florida have increased 77% in the last three years. In other words, things are getting tight. Also, a number of police agencies across the country (including the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office) now have a health care benefit (including a Free benefit) for their retired officers.

Hopefully the citizens of Tampa will understand our plight and support us. If any officer is motivated differently than what I described here or if he agrees, please feel free to post in this string on the topic.

Thanks for your support!

Chip DeBlock, Co-Founder
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