INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – After nearly an hour of debate, the Board of County Commissioners voted 3-2 to pass a resolution supporting the Indian River County Sheriff to resolve labor negotiation impasses.
The commission will now send its resolution to state legislators in Tallahassee asking their support of a Senate and a House bill that would place the final decision-making ability in the sheriff’s hands. Commissioners Gary Wheeler and Joe Flescher voted against the measure, arguing that granting the final say to the sheriff would inhibit impartial collective bargaining.
“There’s a sense of fairness missing there,” Wheeler said. Wheeler is a former Indian River County sheriff.
Currently, state law mandates that the Board of County Commissioners resolve negotiation impasses – a task the Indian River County board handled last summer when the union and the sheriff could not agree to a change in schedules and hours.
Flescher likened the request to that of a baseball game.
“It looks like we’re removing the umpire,” he said of the resolution that would remove the county commissioners from the process. Instead, a member of one of the teams – or the owner – would serve as the umpire, Flescher continued.
“That’s not a game I would like to watch,” he said. “It would probably be one sided.”
But their fellow commissioners disagreed and argued that as an elected official, the sheriff should have the right to decide management issues.
“Ought we be the legislative body?” Commissioner Bob Solari asked of the board being tapped to resolve disputes. “It ought not be us.”
Solari explained that the board is not expert on such matters nor does it have enough information to make sound decisions.
Commissioner Wesley Davis said it would not be fair to get involved in the sheriff’s business when the sheriff is accountable to the voters, not the board. He explained that voters would end up holding the sheriff accountable for issues the board decided.
Commission Chair Peter O’Bryan said he agrees with Davis, that it should not be the board’s job to get involved.
The commissioners who supported the Sheriff’s Office-recommended resolution said they believed the proposed state law would not hamper negotiations between the sheriff and the union. They explained that if the sheriff did not negotiate in good faith, the union could file a lawsuit and voters could vote the sheriff out at the polls.
“I believe we’ve beat this to death,” he said and called the vote.
The Florida Legislature is expected to debate related Senate Bill 610 and House Bill 417 during this legislative session.
