Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
City officials are set to approve a measure that will reduce the percentage of the contributions that police make to their pension funds, yet another of the recent advances made by Monticello Police Department (MPD) officers.
Ordinance 2022-11 – which the Monticello City Council is expected to approve on Tuesday, Dec. 6 – will reduce officers’ pension contributions from seven to five percent.
Approval of the contribution reduction proviso was contingent on the Florida Division of Retirement (FDR) providing an actuarial impact statement to the effect that the lower contribution would not create an adverse impact. This the agency did.
The contribution reduction is one of several changes to result from recent collective bargaining negotiations between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
Others of the specified changes, as represented to the council by City Attorney Bruce Leinback, who negotiated the agreement with the FOP on behalf of the city, include a one-time $2,000 bonus per officer, irrespective of the latter’s base pay; an additional holiday; an update of the designated work period; and a stipulated reopening of wage discussions in 2023.
The council ratified the agreement at a special meeting on Oct. 7 and was only awaiting the response of the FDR before proceeding with the contribution reduction measure. The bulk of the agreement, per Leinback, was the 2017 agreement, with the stated changes.
Police officers earlier received a significant salary increases as part of the budget negotiations process, with the average officer’s salary going from $35,091 annually to $41,000. Together, these latest advances are expected to make the MPD more attractive to recruits and help it retain officers.
One of the department’s perennial problems has been its inability to keep officers because of the job’s low pay, so that officers not infrequently use it as training ground before moving on to better paying agencies once they’ve gained experience.
On a related matter, the city’s latest budget adjustments, as presented at a budget committee meeting in late October, showed a deficit of $92,629 in the general fund for fiscal year 2021-22.
A notation accompanying the figure underscored that the amount was unadjusted and included some expenses for the new fiscal year, as well as large reserve transfers and unbudgeted garbage expenses.
Notable however, the MPD pointed out, it had come in under budget for the last fiscal year. Budgeted for a grand total of $856,424, the department actually spent $782,118 in fiscal year 2021-22, returning $74,306 to the city.