Sheriff's Office negotiators hesitate to strike a deal with the Fraternal Order of Police, missing a self-imposed deadline.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published June 12, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - Negotiators from the Sheriff's Office suggested Friday that because of the current economic climate and the recent failure of the half-cent sales tax referendum, Hernando officials could reduce the 2004-05 budget requests for all county constitutional offices.
That means the Sheriff's Office might not be able to afford wage increases resulting from the three-month collective bargaining sessions.
"We don't want to make a promise we can't keep," said Chief Deputy Michael Hensley, a member of the management negotiation team.
The sheriff's preliminary budget request seeks a 7 percent spending increase, but the final amount is anyone's guess. The County Commission's next budget workshop is scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m.
"We are concerned with locking into a proposal that in the end we may not be able to provide," said lead negotiator Mark Levitt from the Tampa law firm of Allen, Norton and Blue.
Without any specifics on what the County Commission would do, and with Friday as a self-imposed deadline for reaching a final agreement, Levitt asked, "Where do we go?"
Not far, said Fraternal Order of Police representatives.
After making two previous wage proposals, one seeking more than $2-million worth of increases, FOP negotiator Paul Noeske renewed his push for sheriff's deputies to be fairly compensated.
Earlier in the negotiations, union representatives had proposed adjusting the pay scale, which would trim the time it takes for a deputy to reach the highest salary level by five years.
In the strongest rhetoric since contract negotiations began in March, Noeske later made what he called a moderate concession - an economic proposal that called for a 5 percent salary increase for the department's 177 sworn deputies.
"You are telling us you don't have the money, you don't have the money. We have bottomed out," said Noeske, a representative for the FOP's Florida Labor Council Committee. "We countered our own proposal two and three times. The sheriff needs to take the time to pay his people."
The management team seemed to take heed.
Five hours into the bargaining session, Levitt returned with a proposal that, their negotiating team said, would not be affected if the county trims the sheriff's budget.
In it, deputies would see a 3 percent cost of living adjustment effective Oct. 1 and 2.5 percent merit raise on the anniversary of employment.
Senior-level deputies with more than 20 years' experience would receive a one-time $1,000-bonus. The raise and bonus pay could be funded under the $23.9-million preliminary budget Sheriff Richard Nugent submitted to the County Commission on May 31.
"We want to do what we can," Levitt said. "The only caveat is that if the county drops the budget, we have to reopen negotiations."
At this point, neither side is thinking of reopening negotiations after a deal is reached. While they have tentatively agreed on several areas, such as the department continuing to pay for employees' insurance benefits, the two sides have not yet hammered out an economic package.
Later, the FOP's Noeske tweaked the management team's economic package, proposing that senior-level deputies with more than 19 years of service receive a $1,000 bonus to their base salary.
With that lastest counterproposal, union representatives were prepared to take the offer back to the union's membership, who meet on Monday.
However, the sheriff's negotiators were not. So the department's rank and file will have to wait. Another meeting, which officials said will hopefully be the last, convenes at the Sheriff's Office on June 28 at 1 p.m.
- Duane Bourne can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com
