The Jacksonville sheriff is asking for 40 officers. Deegan puts pensions on the table

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

1 5 minutes read

Forty additional police officers and the return of pensions for new recruits could be coming to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Mayor Donna Deegan's negotiators in collective bargaining with the Fraternal Order of Police on Thursday proposed reinstating pensions as an option for new hires as part of a three-year contract.

The same day, Sheriff TK Waters told the Mayor's Budget Review Committee that he wants to hire 40 additional police officers in next year's budget, in addition to the 80 police positions gained by the Sheriff's Office in over the past year, an expansion he believes will help catch up. the growth of Duval County.

When Deegan ran for mayor in 2023, she said she supported hiring more police officers and was open to restoring pensions for public safety employees. She supported both initiatives during her first year as mayor, although Waters was a prominent supporter of Daniel Davis in the mayor's race and the Fraternal Order of Police also threw its support behind Davis .

MIchael Binder, a political science professor at the University of North Florida, said he was not surprised that Deegan, a Democrat, proposed returning retirement benefits during negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police .

“If you look back, Democrats and unions were stuck for decades,” he said. “The idea that Republicans have become this pro-union police party is really new and localized in many ways. So it doesn't shock me at all that a Democrat would work positively with a union.”

He said the support Deegan has shown for hiring more police officers aligns with the “reach across the aisle” approach she has taken with Republicans, such as Waters, in city government.

“She certainly appointed Republicans to her administration and kind of followed through on what she said about working with the police and approving a budget increase last year,” Binder said. “Who knows what next year has in store, but definitely last year.”

Jacksonville eliminated pensions for new recruits in 2017

The city stopped offering pensions to all new city government employees in October 2017 after the city accumulated huge amounts of unfunded obligations and Mayor Lenny Curry led a successful campaign for a half-cent sales tax dedicated to paying off that retirement debt.

Employees already enrolled in retirement plans at the time could maintain this benefit, but those who joined municipal employment since October 1, 2017 could only save for retirement with 401(k) accounts.

Deegan's offer would still keep the Jacksonville police and fire pension fund closed to new recruits, but it would allow them to enroll in the financially stronger Florida Retirement System, which covers public employees across the board. 'State.

“Thank you (Mayor Deegan) for solving a problem that you did not cause,” the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5-30 said in a message posted Thursday to X, formerly Twitter. “This is a huge deal and will help JSO recruit and retain the best and brightest. We will no longer be the only police department in Florida without a pension.”

FOP Lodge President Randy Reaves told Action News the administration made an offer Thursday to provide pensions to sheriff's office officers and firefighters with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department starting in the third year of their next contracts.

The city's cost for making this option available was not immediately available. Negotiations continue on a collective agreement, which would require approval from the city council.

“Out of respect for the process, we are not commenting on active negotiations, which are going well and are on the finish line,” city spokesman Phillip Perry said.

Sheriff TK Waters' four-year goal is to recruit 200 additional officers

Separate from union negotiations, the mayor's budget review committee heard Waters present his request for next year's budget. Waters is proposing a budget of $630.5 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, a 5.5 percent increase from this year's budget of $597.7 million.

Jacksonville has suffered from violent crime for decades, but at least so far this year, homicides are trending down. As of Friday morning, the city had 39 unofficial homicides, compared to 62 at the same time in 2023, according to the Florida Times-Union homicide tracker.

Jacksonville is on pace to see fewer than 100 homicides for only the third time in the 21 years since the Times-Union tallied the city's death toll. The tally in 2023 was 157 homicides according to the Times-Union tally, although the sheriff's office has since updated its numbers to a lower total.

Waters said adding more police officers, primarily for patrol, will help stay on top of all kinds of crimes.

“Violent crime is not the only thing we hear about,” he told reporters. “There are so many different things going on in the city and everyone deserves the same level of service, so we want to make sure we stay focused on that.”

His proposed budget calls for a total of 3,350 civilian employees and sworn officers, which would actually be slightly lower than this year's 3,352 positions, according to documents provided to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee.

But the number of sworn officer positions within the sheriff's office would increase further. The city has added 80 police positions in the past year, including 40 officers whose cost will be partially paid over three years by a federal COPS grant, which is short for Community Oriented Policing Services. The request for 40 additional officers would be paid for from the city's general fund that covers city services and would bring the total number of sworn officer positions to 1,948.

Waters told the mayor's budget review committee that when people call the sheriff's office for help, they “expect us to respond in a timely manner.”

“And for us to keep up and be able to do that, I think it's very important for us to continue to try to grow as we move forward,” he told the committee.

The sheriff's office has a large number of vacancies

Waters questioned whether the sheriff's office should first take advantage of all already authorized positions by filling them with police officers before asking for more. The Patrol and Law Enforcement Division, which is the largest division in the Sheriff's Office, had 61 vacant police positions, according to a staffing overview provided to the committee.

Waters said the sheriff's office is about to launch a training academy for 40 police recruits. He said he hoped ongoing contract negotiations between Deegan's administration and the police union could provide officers with a compensation package that would attract “the best and the brightest” to fill future classes of l 'academy.

If Deegan and the City Council grant Waters' request, the next round of police positions would put him more than halfway to his 2023 goal of adding 200 positions over a four-year period. years.

Settlement authority:Jacksonville City Council gives advice to sheriff's official despite community concerns

City Council member Nick Howland said he would support Waters' budget request when it comes before council, including the 40 police officers. Waters said that, based on national benchmarks, the sheriff's office should have more than 2,000 officers for a city the size of Jacksonville.

“This is something that the city council will consider favorably because we know, as the sheriff has clearly stated, that we are understaffed as far as patrol officers are concerned,” Howland said after hearing the presentation to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee.

Deegan, who supported Waters' request for additional police last year, will present his budget proposal to the City Council in July.

Lina Portman

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