This linked Herald article informs us that the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) (many would call it the "cop mafia") is backing our slimeball Mayor Alvarez in the recall fight. If anyone was surprised by this action they deserve to be Baker Acted. After all, under the Alvarez regime, the county gave MDPD officers a 13% pay increase for the 2011 budget year which is probably a substantial portion of the $100+ million the county is adding to their employee costs for the year.
I wonder what the PBA gave up in exchange for the 13% pay increase? Does anyone know? Surely they gave up something to get such a huge increase when our nation's military retirees, federal retirees and Social Security recipients got 0% last year for the annual COLA and 0% this year for the annual COLA. Oh, they didn't give up anything? Why not? After all, taxpayers in this county are losing their homes, their jobs and taking pay cuts so why shouldn't the county be cutting back too! One sore point is that the majority of the cops making the big bucks don't get to pay our county's property taxes because they live in Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
It's funny that the article states:
It should please all county taxpayers that the above county employees in the Employee Relations Department made a total of $2,483,069 annually in 2008 according to the online list. Of course their 2010 wages are probably higher. I suppose most readers didn't realize that these personnel-types make so much money for what they actually do but they must have done well over the years getting reclassifications upgrading their responsibilities and pay scales. I seriously doubt if most private companies pay their equivalent personnel so much money in salaries in addition to great benefits (annual leave, sick leave, holiday leave, decent health insurance, retirement system, etc.).
What is truly sick is that most of these people are responsible for negotiating contracts with the county's labor unions that ultimately result in your tax dollars being spent to pay the employees that the unions represent, such as the 13% pay increase given to the police officers.
What? They didn't make that decision? Who did? The mayor and commissioners? Then why are the Employee Relations Department employees making so much money in taxpayer paid salaries if they're not making the ultimate decisions?
Salaries in the $150K and $160K range for division directors? That is absurd in my book for what these people actually do to make their money. There are many division directors in other county departments responsible for a hell of a lot more that a small group of labor representatives and they make substantially less than the salaries these personnel-type clowns make. You could easily replace these people for half the salaries the taxpayers are currently paying and never notice any difference in what gets done.
It is long past the time to substantially reduce some county employee salaries to reduce the burden on taxpayers and this is the first place I would start. People need to start electing a mayor and county commissioners based on their pledges to get the county payroll expenses under control by substantially reducing them to bring them more in line with private companies in our county.
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