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Tampa uncuffed

Tentative contract would let far-flung deputies take cars home

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published December 8, 2005

The tentative contract agreement recently hammered out by Hillsborough sheriff's administrators and union representatives includes a provision for patrol deputies who live outside the county but want to drive their patrol cars home.

Currently, a deputy who lives in, say Wesley Chapel, cannot take the patrol car home.

The contract would let patrol deputies living outside the county take their cars home - so long as they pay for the gas it takes to get them between their front door and the county line.

That way there is no extra cost to taxpayers, said Jim Diamond, vice president of the West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association.

The two-year contract, the first since deputies voted to unionize in January 2004, still has to be ratified by deputy union members. They are expected to vote before the end of the year.

The contract is the result of several months of talks between the union and Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee and his staff.

The two sides certainly were at odds on some aspects of the contract, including salaries, but Gee said he is pleased with the final result - and the time it took to achieve it. He pointed out that Orange County sheriff's deputies' recent union contract took 18 months to negotiate, and the process was politically charged and tumultuous.

"We really started in on this thing in the spring," Gee said. "To have our first contract already is pretty unheard of. Compromise is tough sometimes, but we did it."

FULL OF PROMISE: The former Wharton High girls basketball coach and math teacher accused of having a long-running affair with one of her student players decided she wanted to be an educator during her sophomore year at Roaring Fork High School in Colorado.

In Jaymee Wallace's 1999 application to the Hillsborough County School District, a copy of which is tucked into the back of her personnel file, she wrote that her own academic success made her "a role model to motivate and influence students, not only to become educated, but to become better people."

"In high school and college I was student body president, captain of sports teams, as well as an honor student. ... People ask me why I don't become a lawyer or doctor because of my academic success. I simply feel that money isn't everything, and teachers are the ones who teach the doctors- and lawyers-to-be.

"Today kids are faced with many issues that take their focus away from education," Wallace wrote.

"I feel my concern for them as people and dedication and commitment to teaching will push them to their potential and allow me to be a successful teacher."

At Wharton, her dedication was recognized.

She was listed in the yearbook as the teacher with the best personality. In a March 2004 evaluation, her supervisor wrote, "Mrs. Wallace does a great job."

But Wallace, 28, isn't teaching anyone now. After her Oct. 31 arrest on one count of lewd and lascivious battery against the 15-year-old Wharton basketball player, the Hillsborough County School Board suspended Wallace without pay.

She was in court this week with her attorney Joe Bodiford, who tried but failed to block public access to court documents related to her case. That means the state can release discovery documents leading up to the trial, scheduled for March 2.

Contact Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler at svansickler@sptimes.com or 813 226-3373.

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:49:13]