Vero Beach Police Officer’s Union vote down their compensation package.
The Vero Beach Police Officer’s Union voted down the contract offered from City Manager Monte Falls by a huge margin.
Unfortunately, under the current management The Vero Beach Police Department is just not competitive with neighboring cities. For instance, Port St. Lucie’s police officers just received a new three-year deal that included a whopping 24-percent pay raise in the first year, followed by consecutive 5-percent annual increases the next two years.
Sources say that Monte Falls went on the record as saying all employees of the City of Vero Beach are equal. Vero Police Officers do not deserve more and will receive the same 5% raise that every other city employee gets this year. Evidently, Chief Currey felt that was fair as he did not offer any insight as to why his officers deserve more than employees who do not put themselves in harms way everyday to protect the citizens.
Well, the officers felt differently and chose to stand up for themselves as they should.
We agree Law Enforcement Officers deserve to be compensated for responding to dangerous situations and putting their lives at risk in order to protect and serve the community members. They definitely deserve to be compensated fairly as compared to their fellow officers in surrounding communities.
We understand that Monte Falls and David Currey have the luxury of sitting behind a desk everyday. The most danger they face is spraining a finger while dialing their telephone. Maybe they should have consulted people who understand what law enforcement officers get paid these days, so that VBPD officers could have be offered a fair benefits package.
We are all lucky enough to live in the beautiful commmunity of Vero Beach, FL. Our City leaders should understand that the officers are part of the face of the community and compensate them accordingly so that they can be competitive in recruiting where they are currently not competitive at all.
Just pay the men and women that protect and serve!
It’s more than a little unfair to say that Monte said the officers “do not deserve” a raise. He said that there is a clause in the city union’s contracts that say if one union gets a raise, all city employees get a raise because all employees are considered equal.
The issue shouldn’t be addressed in flat raises because one position might be severely underpaid and another only slightly. The issue should be addressed at the HR level, where a study should be conducted for all positions to make sure all employees (including non police staff) are in wage scales that are actually appropriate for their position and competitive to surrounding municipalities. But Monte & the city’s HR director Gabrielle Manus refuse to do so.
To the guy that wrote this, Don’t you think it is time to get up off your couch, put down your laptop and get rid of all those Bon Bons you eat all day long. Bashing Monte Falls and David Currey every day is your mission in life. Such a waste of time. Get a life.
PS. Nobody dials a telephone anymore.
For anyone that wants to read the truth, checkout Vero News or 32963
I retired from a suburban police department in Pennsylvania two years ago and relocated to Vero Beach. In addition to many police certifications, I also have a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration and taught on the subject in a University in the Philadelphia suburbs.I intended to work for several more years before fully retiring. I thought seriously about joining the Vero Beach Police Department until I saw their salaries. They are a complete disgrace. We ask our officers to work under extremely hazardous conditions and work schedules that totally disrupt their personal lives, but then we don’t even compensate them with a livable wage? The current Vero Beach Police Department compensation package is an absolute disgrace. I know wages in Florida are typically lower than in the north east, but Vero Beach’s package is a disgrace even by Florida standards. If you want to attract and keep dedicated quality officers, you really need to do much better. From what I’ve been reading since moving here two years ago, it sounds like the entire city needs and overhaul in leadership, which appears to be severely lacking.