Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder recently concluded labor contract negotiations with both his deputy’s and civilian worker’s unions and submitted his FY 2008 budget. Two of our Board members were afforded the opportunity to meet with Sheriff Crowder and his senior staff to discuss this budget and other law enforcement issues. With the current atmosphere of a slowing in the local economy and stagnating property taxes we were especially concerned with the effects the new contracts might have, since personnel costs will now make up nearly 90% of the Sheriff’s operating budget.

The Sheriff explained there were varying, phased-in wage adjustments for each contract covered position, with the net effect being an increase of approximately 9.5% the first year, 8.5 % the second year and little change in fringe benefits, other than those mandated by the State. Both yearly increases are in excess of both current and anticipated inflation growth trends, which are expected to be no more than the 3% to 4%. The Sheriff cites wage studies of local and surrounding government employees as a significant driver for what he deemed “fair” treatment for his employees. We are not in a position to second guess the Sheriff’s job researching the wage issue, especially since he managed to stay within his allotted 4.5% overall budget increase. The Sheriff and his salaried staff felt so strongly about holding the line on the budget they agreed to forgo all pay increases from the Lieutenants position up for the coming budget year. The remainder of required spending reductions needed to allocate the higher percentage raises to lower level employees will be accomplished with decreases in overtime, a net reduction of approximately 15 positions through a freeze on hiring, and a decrease in capital spending for new vehicles and equipment.

We commend the Sheriff and his staff for making the hard decisions and agreeing to the personal sacrifices required to stay within the 4.5% budget increase. He is also the only County official to actually request a decrease in his allotted impact fees. And, all the Sheriff’s employees are to be congratulated for keeping Martin County safe with one of the lowest crime rates in south Florida But, this only takes care of the first year. Just like the other County departments, especially EMS, multi-year, inflationary labor contracts will make it very difficult to hold down future spending. Also, funding wage increases with reduced equipment replacement only places a greater burden on future expenses.

Moving beyond the Sheriff’s Office, with the State’s “mandated” reduction in taxes the County Administration and the Commissioners are going to have to make hard choices and show some creativity. We continue to recommend that all County offices be required to build and maintain a 5 year budget that is updated annually. This would make the result of multi-year contracts and automatic merit raises painfully obvious and help reduce the politics associated with the budget process – especially during election years. The days of rubber stamping union demands and unsustainable spending on personnel must come to a screeching halt. Since wage pressures from surrounding Counties seem to be the biggest rationale for high union demands, Martin County is going to have to come up with new approaches for dealing with this issue. Ideas might be to initiate discourse on a solution with the other counties in the region and/or ask the State for help similar to their control on teacher salaries. We also continue to recommend that the Commissioners remove themselves from the bargaining process and use skilled professional negotiators. The Commissioners should give the County Administrator realistic fiscal goals, along with sufficient resources and flexibility, let him do his job and judge his performance on how well he meets those goals. Since the current Administrator bares little responsibility for the fiscal challenges the County is now in, he should be allowed to accomplish those goals without micro-management from those largely to blame for the problems.