Stephen Stock, in a CBS I-Team report said that Miami Dade County paid their police officers $144 million dollars in over-time the past two years. Wouldn’t it make sense to hire more officers instead and wouldn’t it be cheaper? Broward paid about $16 and then $30 million a year in overtime the past two years. Stock reported that in Miami Dade County there were:
“...87 employees who doubled their salary or more in overtime and extra pay in either 2007 or 2008.” and,“...the I-Team's analysis of two years worth of pay records show at least 70 different officers appeared to regularly work more than the 64 hours a week allowed under the rules.”
Why am I telling you this in a blog about transit? Because of Katy Sorenson. I am going to argue her point. I am going to try to think this morning. Ick:
Sorenson is saying, yes, the electorate were sold a bill of goods on transit that were not delivered. And, yes she did vote to redirect the tax money to operation and maintenance. And, yes, transit was mismanaged. As the Miami Herald reported, “Nearly $900 million collected for new projects has been spent on bloated staff, outsized salaries and maintenance of existing operations.” But, Commissioner Sorenson thinks the end justifies the means, that transit needs the money because the department is in trouble and only the transit riders will get hurt if the tax is repealed. Bottom line we need to fix transit and the money is not there to do it unless we redirect the tax.
My heartstrings are pulled.
I do care about the people using transit. That is why this issue is so hard. But Commissioner Sorenson, you must know that we have a file on this blog with 53 entries under boondoggle, and most of them are Miami Dade County. The police over-time report above is yet another example of squandering our money. And, we talk about needing jobs. Why not put more officers on the force it would put more people to work and be cheaper for us, as over-time is a killer. That is a better way to create REAL full-time jobs then build a baseball stadium (the newest County boondoggle).
How I see it is, the County is a bloated entity. It is not managed well because it is too big and the Commissioners managing it are beholden to too many entities and swayed by too many lobbyists. Whether it is bad contracts, Wackenhut’s ghost guard billing, police over-time, airport towers that have to be rebuilt twice, over-runs at the performing arts center and the airport, fighting lawsuits against the State of Florida on the Urban Development Boundary, bloated salaries, the "House of Lies," exercising trains in Japan ($2 million a year), etc., you name it yourself Commissioner, the County squanders millions upon millions of our tax dollars every year. It just has to stop. And it can’t. Under the cloud the County operates in and with each County Commissioner pulling for money that we don’t have for their district, a good budget can’t possibly be written or followed. It is like my sister, no matter how much money she had throughout her life, she always spent more. This stadium funding is so over-the-top. It is the tipping point for most of us. Why didn't they go to the legislature and ask for the bed tax money to go for transit? It is more related to tourism than a baseball stadium.
So, I have to say I agree with Commissioner Carlos Gimenez 100% on putting the transit tax back to the Citizens for a re-vote. I would support a petition drive. The public trust is worth more to me than any benefit lost by the tax. This would be a small step to regain that trust. It would remind us that our Charter is about us:
This Charter shall be liberally construed in aid of its declared purpose, which is to establish effective home rule government in this county responsive to the people.
Responsive to the people, remember that.
A small fix I can think of before breakfast: I would let the rest of the unincorporated areas be absorbed into existing cities so the County can streamline itself, at least a little. If I were a commissioner I would have adopted more of the charter change recommendations. At Large Commission seats would have been an important step to stop the money flow to 13 fiefdoms used to garner votes. At Large Commissioners would focus on transit. But, we couldn't even trust the County Commission to do the right thing with the charter changes. There is no trust left in our community and Commissioner Gimenez recognizes that.
Bottom line, The County has stomped on our trust for too long. Did you know that our former County Manager, Steve Shiver, is in Maggie Valley, South Carolina walking door-to-door soliciting public support for his latest venture, the bankrupt Ghost Town amusement park? Why would I trust a County that would hire the likes of Steve Shiver as its manager?
And, I have one last suggestion, a novel approach: fund transit needs in the existing budget as a priority.
10 comments:
Thinking does pay off!
Ironic that the the man who sold us this tax back in 2002 is hitting the citizens of Maggie Valley for his bailout. Maybe George Burgess will be compelled to do the same as Shiver, a door to door begging resolution with each commissioner.
Wait a second, that won't work, they'll give Wackenhut the personal escort contract!!!
I think that the thing which bothers me the most about this whole thing is that the way that the transit tax repeal is being presented is basically as a way of pulling funding to transit, period. I agree completely in tieing transit funding to the bed tax or even a rental car fee since those are two areas which would benefit directly from transit, but that is something that should be clearly defined in the exact same item being voted on as the tax repeal. Under the current situation, it appears that the county just wants to cut transit funding.
“...87 employees who doubled their salary or more in overtime and extra pay in either 2007 or 2008.” and,“...the I-Team's analysis of two years worth of pay records show at least 70 different officers appeared to regularly work more than the 64 hours a week allowed under the rules.”Someone's book keeper can't add a running tally... But I wonder what computer program helps officers keep a running list of hours they work? Can they go online and see if that last arrest will put them over the 64 hour mark? The county runs weeks and more behind in putting the overtime into pay checks, so I wonder if that would slow officers ability to track things monthly?
Just put it into the context that the police department will interview thousands of candidates to get one class (about 40 people) of recruits because we have so many people are druggies and can not pass the mental tests (not to mention, the physical requirements).
Then you add the facts: that we are still losing police to retirement, we are having a rise in crime, and we have a cut in the county budget which is resulting in the delay or canceling of classes of future police recruits that did make the interview process. What does this add up to?
It adds up for the opportunity for police officers to work overtime, because the slots that would be filled by normal regular cops are vacant and have to be covered.
Another issue is the incorporation of the cities. If you all will remember, the new cities had to have Miami-Dade cops. Which means the county contracted a MINIMUM staffing level for all cities. As a result, those positions will be filled prior to any other open unincorporated slot. If you have a a city have has 4 vacancies for road officers, an unincorporated district that has 4 openings for road officers, and a police graduating class that has 5 officers to place on the street--- the city will get the 4 vacancies filled first. The unincorporated districts will most probably lose 4 trained officers and the 5 green cops go on the county streets in the district on midnights. The county nets 1 officer out the class of 5 to fill their 4 vacancies. So, we have overtime.
Do not forget that more crime results in more court. More court results in more overtime. If a police officer in MD misses a court date, they get chopped up into tiny little pieces and their career is slammed BIG time.
However, we do have to consider the driver thing reported. The executive escorts from Mayor down to the commissioners plays well in the media. But, they do have long hours and yes, some of us are nitwits and intimidating at meetings. It is not easy though for our self-driving elected officials to write notes for appearances and avoid rear ending the car in front, so you pay in accident claims or you pay in overtime.
One last thing to consider, how much is that overtime paid indirectly through Federal and other initiatives that focus on high need issues? Like the Port of Miami, for example.
The system may need tweaking.
You do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You pay them more than what they are paid now, by the way. You go into the dark alley after someone knowing you just saw a gun muzzle flash and just had a bullet whiz past your ear for 35k.
If the officers are working overtime and they are protecting the public and are not sleeping behind a tree, then they deserve to get paid. I am not putting my rear out there at any price. Period. Are you?
PS: How much does a TV reporter get paid to go into war zone for CNN? 35K? I don't think so. Well, our county is a war zone.
This post was not about police. READ the post again.
The post might not be about Police, but it illustrates a point. Things are the way they are for a reason. You have to look deeper sometimes.
I do agree, though, that we need to look deeper at the circumstances behind those seemingly wasteful practices.
There is too much favoritism, cronyism, nepotism and such. It is the nature of things. If you take the hard Gimenez approach and the boat starts leaking, people will start bailing. I beleive he is right in this instance.
How about, instead of a petition repealing the tax, which "should" be funding a much needed service, someone runs a petition to get the 1/2 cent tax out of the hands of the people who might be mishandling it, and into the hands of an honest board, like the childrens' trust. Or is there no such thing as an honest responsible group of people, when large amounts of other peoples money is involved?
Instead of "follow the money" maybe we should be "following the managers". For every case of waste and abuse there is a manager allowing it to happen.
My impression is that policemen and firemen live in Broward County and that they hate Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami. They appear to take as much money as they can and spend not a cent in the areas that pay them.
They are pigs.
Last anonymous:
Many of those officers were "blown" into Broward following hurricane Andrew. Their houses were destroyed and they moved their families there so they could work the 12 hour days and weeks that they had to work (without days off for months). It makes sense that those families put down roots in Broward. The housing bubble also pushed officers north as they sought out housing they could afford on their salaries.
Now, if you go to the Keys Gate area in Homestead, you will see police car after police car from agencies all over Miami-Dade county and even Monroe county. This is because affordable housing that police officers can just barely afford to squeeze into became available as the housing bubble burst.
Monroe county encourages their police officers to double up or get married, because their salaries are so low they can't buy a house or even rent one without the double income. And since the Monroe county officials will allow their officers to live in Homestead, they take advantage of the lower rents and mortgage availability.
Far as police being pigs: you are an idiot.
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