Law enforcement and corrections units press committee for bigger pay increases, career-plan funding and safety fixes

Representatives from state law-enforcement and corrections bargaining units told the Joint Select Committee that, while many contract articles have been resolved, wages and related workplace issues remain at impasse.

William Smith, representing the Police Benevolence Association’s Highway Patrol chapter, said troopers received a large pay increase last year but that turnover continues. Smith said his unit seeks a career-development plan funded at $30,000,000 (he contrasted that figure with an alternative governor/agency figure he referenced in the hearing as "11.6" without specifying units in the transcript) and asked for veteran stipends and changes to grooming and tattoo policies to avoid disadvantaging veterans. He also supported proposals for additional patrol vehicles and said the governor’s proposed budget included a roughly $5,000,000 vehicle request.

George Corwin, the PBA’s chief negotiator for the law-enforcement unit, told the committee most articles were agreed but identified Article 13 (safety), Article 14 (performance evaluations) and Article 25 (wages) as outstanding. Corwin said the unit seeks language to prevent the use of case-presentation counts as a de facto quota in performance reviews and requested a $7,000 across-the-board wage increase (described in testimony as just over 10%). Corwin also said Articles 6 and 18 were not timely provided to the PBA after impasse was declared and that those articles therefore should not be open.

James Biardi, representing PBA Security Services for correctional and ISS officers, emphasized that Article 25 (wages) is the central impasse for his unit. He said starting pay for Florida correctional officers is $22 per hour and asked the committee to support an $8-per-hour increase to that starting rate. He also proposed retention payments: $2,000 to base pay for employees with more than three years but less than ten, and $3,500 for those with ten or more years, and sought a 10% additive for members working death-row and close-management units. Biardi described comp-time practices that in some cases leave lieutenants and captains unable to receive overtime pay when they exceed comp-time caps and said the unit requests that these supervisors receive time-and-a-half comparable to other officers.

Committee staff thanked presenters and closed the hearing; no votes were taken. The committee accepted written submissions from the Florida State Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police Special Agent Unit instead of oral testimony.