By Lisa ZahnerINDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Near the end of a meeting which lasted more than four hours, Commissioners Bob Solari, Peter O’Bryan and Chairman Wesley Davis voted to support Sheriff Deryl Loar’s right reduce the work shifts of his 150 uniformed deputies from 12 hours to 10. Commissioners Gary Wheeler and Joe Flescher voted against the change.Loar put forth the proposal as the final piece of his “transition plan” that he’s worked on since he was elected in 2008. That plan has involved looking at resource allocation throughout the department and putting personnel where he felt they would perform best and provide a high level of service to the residents of Indian River County.
“This is all about customer service and about putting people where they’re needed,” Loar said during a recess in the meeting. About 12 years ago, then Sheriff Wheeler, instituted the 12-hour shifts as a cost saving and efficiency measure. Loar has now reversed that change and will have deputies work 10-hour shifts and rotate their scheduled days every six months. The new shifts will focus deputies on days, times and geographic areas where the most crime, occurs.”We want to be able to better allocate the resources of the Sheriff’s Office when we have peak calls for service,” said Jim Harpring, legal counsel for Sheriff Loar. About 125 deputies or family members attended the meeting and several spoke against the change, which will force deputies to work the same number of hours, but over 26 more days per year and to not have the every-other weekend off that they have now. Deputies will either work Sunday through Wednesday or Wednesday through Sunday and that schedule will flip-flop every six months. Everyone will work on Wednesday, when it is the goal to schedule training and court appearances.Results of an in-house survey conducted by the Sheriff’s Office showed 80 percent of deputies were against the change and when a vote was taken at a local meeting of the Coastal Police Benevolent Association, the Sheriff’s proposal was voted down 90-0.Commissioner Wheeler, who asserted before the meeting that he was entering into the proceeding with an open mind, after hearing how the change would disrupt the family lives of the deputies, made a motion to support the deputies and maintain the current shifts.”I’ve given a lot of thought to this,” Wheeler said. “And I don’t like being here in this position . . . I think this is a sad day for Indian River County and for the Sheriff’s Office.”Wheeler continued that, with the overwhelming opposition to the measure and the emotional pleas from deputies describing how the change would affect their families and finances, he would be voting against changing the shifts.”I’ve always been a believer that happy employees make more productive employees,” he said. “The government has created the need for people to work two jobs and for families to have both parents working, they’ve been getting no raises, child care is important and it costs a lot of money and family is important also.”Commissioner Davis said that the people of Indian River County elected Loar for four years to run the Sheriff’s office and that he should be given the opportunity to do that job and either succeed or fail on the merits of his policies and management abilities.”The Sheriff got a majority of the votes and he’s either going to fix this or not get re-elected,” Davis said.O’Bryan was the deciding vote after the other four had weighed in, waivered back and forth from pro to con on the issue, but concluded by voicing his backing for Loar. He then proposed a second motion that the change should not go into affect until a plan of scheduled annual pay increases be negotiated between Loar and the PBA. That motion died on the table for lack of a commissioner to second it and push it to a vote.Loar has stated he would give deputies a few weeks’ notice to adjust their lives around the new shifts. For many families, this will mean finding or expanding child care, rearranging spouses work schedules and possibly having to quit or cut back on a deputy’s second job.Commissioners will reconvene at 9 a.m. Monday to discuss possible year-end bonuses for deputies. They could not decide this matter on Thursday as the Sheriff’s staff did not come prepared with any figures on how much the department would have remaining in the coffers to give raisies and commissioners refused to commit money that the Sheriff doesn’t have on hand.The Sheriff has been instructed to present commissioners with the budget data to determine bonuses for not only the 150 union members, but all 600 members of the Sheriff’s staff.The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Monday in the commission chambers in Building A of the County Administration Complex.