<i>Editor’s Note: After this week’s issue of Vero Beach 32963 went to press, the City of Vero Beach released updated cost estimates for the Teamsters settlement package of $55,000 for fiscal year 2024-25, $218,000 for 2025-26 and $245,000 for 2026-27 totaling $518,000 over the three-year contract. </i> The Vero Beach City Council voted in December to boost police salaries to make them more competitive with neighboring law enforcement agencies, after being assured that similar raises would not have to be given to the city’s clerks, truck drivers and mowers. The assurances by City Manager Monte Falls and Human Resources Director Gabrielle Manus turned out to be wrong – a misjudgment that now will cost Vero an extra half-million dollars over the next three years. All Vero Beach municipal employees were offered a 5 percent cost of living pay increase as of Oct. 1. While two Teamsters Unions were fine with this for the almost 200 municipal employees they represent, the union representing police officers wanted an additional salary boost for new hires and every rank lower than lieutenant. In a Nov. 27 closed executive session, Falls, Manus, City Attorney John Turner and Police Chief David Currey met with the City Council to discuss the stalled police union negotiations. Manus told the Council that the problem was that “the Teamsters blue-collar and Teamsters CT (clerical-technical unit) contract has in there a (me too) provision that if any group in the city gets a higher COLA, we will match for them. That’s why we – if we adjust the COLA, it has to be for everybody.” So instead, the police union, aware of the Teamsters “me, too” clause, proposed that the Vero Council hike police salaries by adjusting the police department “progression plan” – the pay increases that police officers automatically get with each rank promotion. “What they're asking for is the progression plan, increases within their progression plan each year,” said Currey, a 35-year Vero police officer and chief for 13 years. “That’s aside from the COLA.” “The ‘me too’ clause only deals with the COLA,” said Falls. “That’s how we get around not doing it for everybody.” So the City Council went along with it, believing the contract would only apply to 68 police officers, and not to the city’s many other employees. On Dec. 16, Manus confirmed for Vero Beach 32963 that the police contract would not trigger the Teamsters’ “me too”’ clause. “This was not a COLA increase. It was an adjustment to the progression plan to remain competitive with surrounding agencies,” she said in an email. But two days later, the Teamsters filed two grievances with the city, claiming the police contract had indeed triggered their “me too clause.” On March 19, Vero settled with the Teamsters to avoid litigation — an event the negotiating team of Falls, Manus and Currey, with nearly than 80 years combined experience on the job, had told the City Council would not happen. The agreement with the Teamsters will cost taxpayers an additional $80,000 this fiscal year, and more than $200,000 each year in 2026 and 2027. These numbers do not include the respective increases in the city’s share of payroll taxes and pension contributions. The settlement was not discussed at the March 11 city council meeting, neither was it included on this Tuesday’s published council meeting agenda as of press time. City Councilman Aaron Vos said he was told of the Teamsters’ settlement in a private meeting with Falls on March 17. Vos keeps a detailed journal of his encounters with city staff so he can recall what he was told, and when. He was not given a copy of the settlement terms until Vero Beach 32963 shared it with him. Vos, who was a mere eight days on the job when called into the council’s November shade meeting but had worked with unions for decades, said he was not surprised at how events ultimately unfolded with the Teamsters. In the Nov. 27 shade meeting on the police contract, Councilman Taylor Dingle asked Falls of the planned police pay boost, “Have you forecasted or projected what the millage increase would have to be to cover the additional cost?” Falls replied a rough calculation of 5 cents added to the current millage rate. Since the Teamsters have roughly three times the employees of the police union, the full cost for Vero residents could be up to 20 cents per $1,000 in taxable property value tacked onto tax bills this fall. For the owner of a $950,000 home with a Homestead Exemption, the total might amount to $180 per year in additional Vero property taxes – unless the city cuts expenses elsewhere.