City backs pay raises for police

Commissioners agree to an average increase of 9.5 percent for officers in the coming year - 25.7 percent over three years.

By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 4, 2002

LARGO -- Police will get a raise each of the next three years as city officials hope to make the department more competitive with area law enforcement agencies.

City commissioners unanimously approved salary adjustments for officers and sergeants at a busy meeting Tuesday night that also included a pair of 5-1 votes approving the largest budget in city history and 7 percent raises for themselves.

Commissioners will vote again on the $108-million budget at a special public meeting before Tuesday's work session. If approved, it takes effect Oct. 1.

Commissioner Marty Shelby sided with his colleagues on the three-year police contract, but cast dissenting votes against the budget and the commission raises. Commissioner Pat Burke did not attend the meeting.

All the commissioners agreed to give officers an average wage increase of 9.5 percent in the coming year -- 25.7 percent over the next three years -- core points in the contract negotiated with the Police Benevolent Association of Pinellas County.

Mayor Bob Jackson called it fair.

"I appreciated the PBA and their approach to bargaining," Jackson said. "There were no extraordinary demands. No take it or leave it."

The raises come as the city is struggling to retain officers, who are in demand as security concerns across the nation continue to grow.

In the past two years, the department lost 19 officers with less than one year of experience, or 50 percent of the 38 hired since fall of 2000, according to personnel records.

The crunch prompted Chief Lester Aradi this summer to stop requiring that new officers have at least two years of law enforcement experience, or some military equivalent or language proficiency, and the department recently stopped insisting new officers have college degrees.

Aradi and other officials are hoping the salary increase and looser entry-level requirements will keep officers longer, instead of having them seek higher paying jobs with other close-by departments.

Officers can expect to earn $3,500 more annually. That boosts the minimum starting salary to $34,000 under the new contract -- and the maximum to $51,000.

That's on par with officers in Clearwater, who will make between $32,755 and $51,274 next year, and in St. Petersburg, where they expect $33,475 to $50,584, according to a 2002 PBA Wage Comparison table distributed by Largo officials.

Police sergeants can expect $4,000 more a year, bumping the minimum salary to $45,700 and the maximum to $59,500.

"I'm not the first one to say pay alone will cure that," Aradi said hours before the commission approved the contract. "But it certainly is a big issue to our officers, especially the ones leaving to go to higher pay jobs with other cities."

-- Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com.

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