The Palm Beach Post had an article entitled, Job, costs are focus of sheriff plan for takeover which was about Boynton Beach and its possibility of voting to go with PBSO. In the article there were Officer-Resident ratios and the cost per city. As it turns out, Lake Worth is paying more than any city in the comparison. The figures below are based on 2010. Since that time, PBSO has reduced the number of sheriff deputies on our streets from 134 to 120 and the price is going up for Sheriff services.
Susan Stanton negotiated a reduction in costs of $1.2 million with PBSO that was good for two years. It is now up and Bradshaw says he wants a whopping increase to his budget.
The comparison by city and each deputy cost based on number of officers and total amount of contract in 2010 is revealing. I have to wonder why Lake Worth is paying so much more than any other city. Do we just enter into "bad" or costly deals?
Belle Glade...$57,815
Lake Park...$73,067
Lake Worth...$106,647
Mangonia Park...$84,467
Pahokee...$40,385
Royal Palm Beach...$66,101
South Bay...$20,686
Wellington...$70,130
The PBSO is becoming a government on to itself. It is totally political and their top gun, Ric Bradshaw is elected to office. They have so much power and our public safety is in their hands. They are grabbing up cities right and left to add to their coffers. PBSO is a business paid for by the taxpayers who are sick to death of the crime increase and are being convinced that the Sheriff is the only way.
Municipalities must realize that the Sheriff markets its services in such a way to convince cities that they will be their savior--cities that are vulnerable and going through temporary financial hard times. They imply that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread and then take over all your policing assets. Once cities are taken over by the PBSO, there is no leverage and there is no going back. It will always be a constant hassle to negotiate and they're better than government staff in that process. Pensions and salaries will continually go up. On top of that, after the first year, patrol car sightings seem diminished.
They do, however, entrench themselves into the community by attending neighborhood association meetings and giving them a crime up-date. They put on fundraisers and do good deeds such as Haiti. This impresses everyone and that takes the sting out of the financial tab for some who believe and say, "We are safer." PBSO knows the emotional impact they have on this City and that citizen belief of safety at any cost reduces the power of negotiation of their contract even further.As Budget discussions start this week, it will take more than politics for City Manager Bornstein to keep the highest operating cost in check. Crime is on the rise in spite of PBSO and has only gone down in two categories.
9 comments:
Susan Stanton was fired.
No chit, Charlie!
Maybe if we could just get ALL people to follow God's laws instead of man's we wouldn't need police or the PBSO, our government and elected people want you to be indebted to them, Bradshaw loves this, then his pay goes up, it is all a big business scam from our government. Vote Bradshaw out, go back to small town policing and to God's way where we all love one another and assume responsibility for our own actions and we wouldn't need so many police.
Lynn, I am glad you expose the truth about all the waste and cost of PBSO, all the politics and game playing they are doing. Thanks! You are the only one who questions things which is good, that is what we are supposed to do. The other blogs just love PBSO and they can do no wrong, they just are not opened to the other side. I appreciate you probing and being more fair and balanced here. We need to stop all the waste and high costs for the citizens!
Looks like Lynn is posting anonymously to her own blog again.
We get it. You don't like PBSO no matter what they do.
Fair and balanced? You've been watching so much Fux News it's taking over your thoughts.
Wow, that is incredible!! I am torn about the PBSO. I think they have done a better job at cleaning up the City. They came out in force early on and made real progress. But I have noticed that patrols are down, I didn't realize they had actually reduced officers, although if you call they show up pretty quickly.
But PBSO is charging too much money to everyone who pays. There is just no reason that so much of the county budget, our city budget and other cities budget is all going to PBSO. They need to cut back and they can do so as other agencies do, but they put the fear of crime in people who vote so they keep getting more and more.
Lynn, I'd really like to read the article you reference, I can't find it on the PB Post cite, can you post a link?
It doesn't seem to me that the cost comparisons are relevant as the crime rates in the municipalities are not comparable.
You don't think that Pahokee and Belle Glade have a lot of crime? Give me the crime rates in the municipalities. Thanks.
When trying to find a link that day, I couldn't. However, it was written by eliot_kleinberg@pbpost.com. Write him and hopefully he will send the article link.
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