SARASOTA, Fla. — Following several meetings this month, the Sarasota Police Union and the City of Sarasota have yet to agree on the future of police salaries.
Police union leaders said they want the pay of certified officers bumped up to match that of deputies employed at the Sarasota Sheriff's Office. If not resolved quickly and amicably, the impasse could affect the local community in terms of the number of police officers on staff.
Since both parties could not reach an agreement in good faith on their own, the negotiations would now have to involve a third-party mediator from the Public Employees Relations Commission. However, time is running out on the process as a deal needs to be reached by Oct. 1st.
"God forbid on your darkest day that you need help. Do you want the top five graduates from an academy class showing up to service your needs at that point or do you want No. 32 through 37?" said Eric Urbain, President of The Sarasota Police Officers Association.
The Sarasota Police Officers Association said issues like cost of living, lack of affordable housing, officer retention and recruitment are the driving forces behind their demand for higher wages and equivalent pay.
"At this point, it's not going to get done. It's just basically impossible. The city has decided that its men and women who wear the uniform and badge are not worth the same as what the county has determined that their folks are," Urbain said.
Union leaders want police starting salaries which are currently around $68,000 for certified officers to match Sarasota Sheriff deputies' starting salary in the mid $75,000 range. This represents an 11% increase, however the city is proposing to bump the salaries by only 4%.
"We're going on the same calls in the same street with the men and women of Sarasota Sheriff's Office. We felt our folks deserved the same compensation. It's not necessarily a matter of the ability for the city to do it, it's a matter of will," said Urbain.
A city spokesperson said in a statement that safety is a foremost concern for city leaders.
"Public safety remains the city's top priority. The community will continue to be safeguarded by the Sarasota Police Department with the highest professional standards during the impasse resolution process," said Jan Thornburg, spokesperson for the City of Sarasota.
Union leaders said while the officers will remain diligent in their service to the community, they add that it is not only important to ensure that they can meet their obligations to provide for their families but to also ensure that they have the right tools and frame of mind to match the community's needs.
"The quality of service is going to go down and the folks that are qualified here are going to see their worth valued more somewhere else," Urbain said.
If there is no progress made with a mediator, the negotiations will then go into an arbitration phase. At that point, it would be in the hands of a magistrate's independent hearing officer to determine the final agreement or even possibly force the parties to continue discussions. However, because arbitration is non-binding, the city commission would have to either accept or choose to modify any suggested deal. While both parties said they hope for a speedier conclusion, the process between an impasse and a final resolution can even take up to a year.
