BCC-ECSO Budget Impasse 2017-2018...Is There a Potential Breakthrough Coming Thursday?

UPDATE 3-15-2018--BCC Endorses Mediated Settlement with ECSO


There was an hours-long back and forth mediation held between representatives of the BCC and the ECSO this past Friday morning, afternoon, and early evening.

Obviously any specifics that came from that meeting are subject to a confidentiality agreement that all participants (myself included) signed.

But I will report this:  I am told my counterparts on the BCC have each been briefed about these discussions, and subsequent to these talks on Friday-another executive session (shade meeting) has been scheduled for this Thursday morning at 8:30 right before our morning's agenda review session.

My prediction is that we may have a big announcement this Thursday at some point--so stay tuned!

See the meeting notice announcing this closed session of the BCC below....

Attachment 13: Time Line of ECSO Raises

This graph, provided by ECSO, shows Entry Deputy Annual Salary has increased 53% and that some sort of salary augmentation has been given to employees in all but 4 of the last 18 years.  

Attachment 13 of the binder containing the documents associated with the ECSO's appeal of their 2017-2018 budget is entitled "Time Line of ECSO Raises."  There is a lot of interesting data that can be gleaned from just this one tab.  As I go through the binder this weekend ahead of Monday morning's strategy meeting of the BCC, I find myself coming back to attachment 13.  What does it show?  There is dissonance between what has been stated and what this document shows.....


----For the period from 2000-2018, Base Pay for deputies has increased roughly 53% from the year 2000 starting pay level

----This equates to an average annual base pay increase of nearly 3% per year to the starting pay for "Entry Deputy"in this time frame

----Some form of pay raise or salary increase has been given to ECSO personnel in all but four (4) of the last 18 years--according to this chart provided by ECSO.

----Although ECSO personnel have stated to me that deputies have gone "7 years without raises" --the graph provided by ECSO does not corroborate that statement..It clearly disputes this assertion.  What seven years?

What Would an Appeal to Tallahassee Look Like?

An appeal of the Escambia BCC's adopted budget allocation to the Sheriff's office would be time consuming, data intense, and there would be no guarantee that the Governor would side with the Sheriff.......he might very well side with the BCC!

While we are still in the process of working through our budget for the FY 2018--there is growing speculation that unless the BCC fully funds the 8% year-over-year budget request from the Sheriff's office---the ECSO will appeal our adopted budget to the Governor.

The Sheriff has very publicly stated there would be no compromise.  He has communicated this personally to me as well.

Currently, Sheriff has requested a total of nearly $60 Million for the FY, an 8% increase above and beyond the $55.4 Million he requested and received last year.

I am on record stating I do not believe we will be able to fully fund the complete 8% increase the sheriff has requested this year.  I am not voting to raise the year over year total millage rate--taxpayers are giving all they can currently.  I have also stated publicly that I believe what we ultimately get the sheriff will be somewhere between the 1.57% increase that has been offered (over last year) and a 4-4.5% increase year over year.  I've also stated that it is my desire to see the street deputies get a pay increase---along with our corrections officers---if the monies could be found.  I won't support one without the other.

I've also stated that I do not believe this will go all the way through the process to the Governor's Administration Commission.  Here's why:

Over the last 30 years, only a couple dozen of these appeals have been filed.  With 67 Counties in Florida, this means over the last 30 years there have been the possibility of more than 2000 such appeals.   Of these, only 4  have made it all the way through the process to come before the Governor and his full commission ( one settled after appearing before the commission, but prior to a ruling being published). This equates to about 1% of the total statewide sheriff's budgets in this 30 year period being appealed, and of those appealed, the 4 that were heard by the full commission represent just over 16% of the total that could have been heard .  (The process can be time consuming, and the parties must appear before a first committee to present their respective cases, and then the parties must appear before a committee comprised of the Governor and his Cabinet Members' aides, and if not settled at this point, only then do the parties appear before the Governor and the full commission.)

Recently the Hernando County Sheriff filed an appeal, which led to scrutiny of his budget, which let to the discovery of about $2 Million in funds that should have, and eventually were, turned back over the the Hernando County BCC.  Eventually, the County and the Sheriff in that case settled their dispute.

Alachua County has seen a few instances of tension, with one ruling being handed down in favor of that sheriff for an amount that was far less than what was requested going into the process.

So the notion that this will be a quick, easy victory for either side is illogical.  I hope the issue can be settled here locally because I know that any outcome dictated downward from Tallahassee (in the unlikely event a locally generated appeal were to even get that far) would be a Pyrrhic victory for our community--no matter which side "Wins."

"The process is designed, and the intent of the whole thing is to have the parties to these disputes settle the dispute short of the process going all the way to the Governor" said a source that is very familiar with this process in Tallahassee with whom I spoke recently.  She continued  "There were many, many years where no appeals were filed statewide."

Of the four that did go all the way, with which this employee with whom I spoke was familiar, one settled before the final ruling by the commission--the other three are linked here, here, and here.

So yes, this is a convoluted, time-consuming process with no pre-determined outcomes and an apparent goal of forcing parties to compromise.