West Palm Beach police officers wear Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association shirts during a County Commission meeting.
They say they put their lives at risk every time they show up for work. They say they want to make sure rookie cops have a chance at 5 percent annual pay hikes, called step increases. They say West Palm Beach under Mayor Lois Frankel wastes money.
They say they will picket SunFest, an independently run music and arts festival starting Wednesday on the downtown West Palm Beach waterfront. “We’re tired of being mistreated,” Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian told The Post.
The city says all employees have to sacrifice to balance a budget at a time of declining property tax revenues. The city says it can’t negotiate in May a contract to be determined in September. The city says it has one of the highest-paid police forces in the state, with nearly 30 percent grossing more than $100,000 in 2009. In a Florida League of Cities’ annual survey of 17 police and sheriff’s departments serving more than 90,000 residents, West Palm Beach police ranked second with an average base salary of $67,085.
Police refused to work the overtime detail at SunFest, forcing the city to assign some officers to festival duty. Last year, police earned $92,000 working the event, The Post’s Andrew Abramson reported, with 10 officers logging days of more than 15 hours and one bringing home $740 with an 18.5-hour day.
Do the cops deserve a raise? Is it appropriate for them to picket SunFest? Or is their posturing hurting their cause?
