TAMPA BAY: Sheriff's deputies gear up to unionize

As the top law enforcement officer, they can hire, promote and fire deputies at their discretion - beholden to voters, not unions, unlike city police chiefs.

But that may change this year.

Three months ago the state Supreme Court ruled that deputy sheriffs can collectively bargain over their wages, hours and benefits. In response, labor groups have petitioned 20 sheriff's offices around the state in hopes of organizing unions in those agencies.

"It's huge," said Tim Ingold, a Pinellas County sheriff's sergeant who is also the president of the county's Fraternal Order of Police. "It's absolutely huge. The majority of sheriffs are good people and do a great job for their employees, but some of them are going to get a lesson in labor."

On the west coast of Florida, unions have petitioned sheriff's offices in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Charlotte, Hernando and Sarasota counties.

Union leaders say that if deputies can collectively bargain, it will mean more job security for deputies. It will also force sheriffs to be fair about promotions, offer better benefits and in, some cases, pay higher wages, they say.

"No longer will a sheriff be able to change things at their whim," said Ernie George, president of the Florida Police Benevolent Association in Palm Beach County. "When you have collective bargaining, you can't say, this guy's my buddy, I'm going to pay him $20 an hour, and this other guy is not my buddy, I'm going to pay him $10 an hour and they will both do the same job."

Kevin Durkin, the president of the PBA chapter in Hillsborough County, says a union would also "take some of the politics out of the sheriff's office.

"Hopefully the peaks and valleys of an election cycle will not have an effect on sheriff's deputies if they are under contract," Durkin said.

Predictably, many sheriffs are against the idea.

"I'm going to go to roll calls and put out information about why I think I can manage the office better than a union," said Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson.

For instance, Henderson said, sheriffs may not have the latitude to change the shift schedules without consulting the union and a contract first. It is also harder to fire people who deserve to be fired, he said.

"You're bogged down in minutia when you have to go through that process," he said.

Other concerns revolve around promotions based on seniority and not merit.

"One of the good things about a sheriff's office is that we have the flexibility of rewarding a person for doing a good job," said Alachua County Sheriff Stephen Oelrich, who is also president of the Florida Sheriffs Association.

The association, which represents and lobbies on behalf of the 67 sheriffs in the state, opposed the idea of unions for years, at least until the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in January.

The issue dates back to 1974, when the Legislature passed a law allowing public employees to collectively bargain. The PBA organized deputies in several counties, but then in 1978, the Supreme Court said deputies were not entitled to collectively bargain, agreeing with groups such as the Sheriff's Association.

"Our position all along was that deputy sheriff's are in fact appointees, not employees," said Oelrich. "Deputies are extensions of the elected sheriff."

Over the years, deputies grumbled. So did groups such as the PBA. But for many years, the issue was just a minor gripe among deputies in Florida, just one of many states in a region known for being anti-union.

Then, city police departments around Florida started to unionize, and those officers started to make more money and enjoy better benefits than deputies.

Deputies in some counties went to court to challenge the law, and the Legislature gave special dispensation to six Florida sheriff's offices, allowing them to unionize.

On Jan. 30, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Coastal Florida PBA vs. Sheriff Phil Williams.

Union leaders and deputies called the case a landmark decision.

Within weeks, thousands of deputies around the state signed blue postcards to announce that they wanted union representation.

Steve Meck, general counsel for the state Public Employee Relations Commission, says his agency is the intermediary between the unions and the sheriff's office.

To be eligible for a union vote, 30 percent of the deputies must sign the blue cards. Then, PERC employees review the case and any rebuttals from the sheriff.

Once the paperwork is properly filled out, an election takes place.

Deputies from Palm Beach County to Pasco, from Hardee to Hillsborough, are still waiting for sheriffs, union officials and state employee experts to review paperwork before holding hearings, then elections. Some counties, such as Pinellas, are far along in the process - Ingold expects an election to be held there within two months.

Each county appears to have a different union proposal. For instance, in Pinellas County, sheriff's deputies and corporals will have a choice between the Fraternal Order of Police, the PBA, or no union at all. Sergeants and lieutenants in Pinellas can choose only between the FOP or no union.

"There is the potential for nothing whatsoever to happen," said Meck. "We don't know if all of these cases will go to election. We don't know if the union or unions will prevail in the elections."

Other counties have just started their petitioning efforts.

"The list is growing almost daily," said David Murrell, the executive director of the Florida PBA, which is based in Tallahassee. "The idea has really caught on fire."

If the PBA is successful in all of its elections, it will gain about 10,000 new members, Murrell said. The organization has 30,000 members.

Leonard Territo, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, said regardless of whether deputies endorse a union, change is likely.

Territo, who was the undersheriff in Leon County and a Tampa police officer, said some sheriffs who have a union vote on the horizon may decide to offer their deputies some perks in hopes of influencing the vote in their favor.

"A lot is going to depend on the relationships between the sheriffs and the deputies," Territo said. "The more content deputies are with the administration, the less likely they are to join unions."

Sheriffs such as Henderson say they treat their employees well, and that's why they predict a union effort ultimately will fail. But Henderson acknowledges that there may be other reasons why, as well.

"There are some smaller counties where the sheriff is still the king," said Henderson, who runs the fourth-largest sheriff's office in the state, so he wasn't referring to himself. "I don't know if they will unionize, because the king will get them."

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