Posted on 09/07/2012 4:40:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Under pressure to match a bonus the Pinellas sheriff plans to award his staff, the County Commission is leaning toward offering its employees a similar deal.
At the board's Thursday meeting, a majority of the commissioners said they would support a $1,200 one-time bonus for employees next fiscal year, as well as three additional days off. This payment would come at the same time that the board plans to raise property taxes to help absorb a $25 million budget gap.
Careful to describe the money as a one-time payment rather than a raise, commissioners said that Sheriff Bob Gualtieri's surprise decision to offer his staff a bonus left them with no choice but to follow his lead.
Gualtieri sent a letter Aug. 24 saying that after years of fiscal strain, he intended to reward his employees with a 4 percent salary bonus. A few days later, notes from unhappy public employees began to fill commissioners' email accounts.
"Have you seen the letter to the deputies regarding a cost of living one-time raise? So unfair," wrote one employee to Commissioner Norm Roche.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
Makes me sick. Our local TEA Party supports Gualtieri. I voted for the guy in the primaries. He’s not a bad cop, but he’s also not a prudent businessman.
Pinellas county isn’t awash in cash, and there are parts of our county that are growing impoverished due to foreclosures. The idea of raising our property taxes to give public employees more money disgusts me. Improve our county HS grades, and I might think better of the idea. We’ve got a long way to go.
I’m familiar with the area.
I went to Disston J.H. and Boca Ciega H.S. (way back when) but left for college and didn’t return to live there.
Someone has to make the hard choices - everywhere - giving bonuses while raising taxes is insanity. As mentioned in the article, it will not be thought of as a one time thing but expected every year.
I went to Bogie until senior year. Graduated from Dunedin HS. They did away with the busing garbage for the purpose of desegregation, and Bogie’s returned to a poor-grade HS.
Small world. I was there in the 60’s when it was a good school.
There’s a LOT of history at that school. I was sad to go, but a lot’s changed there. I was there in the mid-90s, so a generation of change could definitely work against it.
On goody. We’re losing our police dept in St Pate Beach. Maybe that extra Pinellas County money will help the Sherrif’s dept patrol our little town. Prolly not.
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