Tampa City Council could approve 18.5 percent raise for TPD this week

As the Tampa Police Department continues to face scrutiny, both locally and by the feds, Tampa police officers could receive an 18.5% pay raise over three years, under conditions negotiated in their union’s newest contract with the city.

That’s if the contract ratified by union membership this month is given final approval by Tampa City Council on Thursday, July 28. If past contract approvals are any indication, approval is likely.

This latest deal came after several months of negotiations with the officers police union, the Tampa Police Benevolent Association (PBA), which has represented officers in the Tampa Police Department since 2008.

Negotiations for their latest deal occurred in tandem with agreements reached ahead of schedule by the city of Tampa’s blue-collar workforce, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 1464, and the local firefighters union earlier this month. All three unions negotiated the 18.5% raise, ahead of their current contracts’ expiration at the end of September. The firefighters union is the only one of the three that has yet to ratify the new agreement.

If the contracts are approved, Tampa police officers, school resource officers, police detectives, and others covered by the police union’s contract would see their pay increase 18.5% over three years.
According to the union’s current contract, rank-and-file officers in TPD currently earn anywhere from $60,0000 to nearly $98,000 annually. Meanwhile, ATU confirmed to CL that some of the city’s lowest paid blue-collar workforce—including utility workers, building and maintenance workers, and recreation workers—make as little as $15 an hour, or $35,000 a year. Firefighters on the lowest pay grade also make less than Tampa’s cops.

As WMNF reported earlier this week, the 18% ATU raise is the “highest wage increase ever” for the city’s blue-collar workers, per ATU Local 1464 President Steve Simon.

In their last contracts, all three unions saw 3% pay raises, year-over-year, beginning October 2019-Sept. 30, 2022. This new one, according to Simon, is “much better.”

But, while the ATU Local 1464 publicly celebrated its highly-popular contract, ratified in a 904-11 vote with 98% member turnout, the Tampa PBA—which represents Tampa police officers, school resource officers in Tampa, and others in TPD—did not.

When reached for comment about the new contract, Tampa PBA’s General Counsel declined to provide clarification on the ratified contract’s details. "While we have entered into a tentative agreement with the City of Tampa that has been voted and approved by the Tampa PBA membership, it has not been approved and ratified by the Tampa City Council as required,” the union’s General Counsel, Danny Alvarez—who’s currently running for State House, as a Republican—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay via email.

“At this point it is premature to discuss details of that potential contract until it is ratified and has the force of law,” Alvarez said.

Essentially, after a tentative agreement, or deal, is struck between an employer (e.g. the City of Tampa) and a labor union, that agreement must then be approved by both parties.

City staff, including chief of staff John Bennett and Mayor Jane Castor, were also involved in the negotiations process with the city’s labor unions. According to the city, all department heads were asked by Mayor Castor to participate in contract negotiations alongside Human Resources officials, in a departure from the past, in order to “build stronger relationships and ensure the contracts incorporated better-governing processes.”

But it's the seven-member City Council that must give the final OK on the contracts. Earlier this week, several city council members confirmed to CL that they had not yet seen the PBA contract to review it for ratification, although they are scheduled to vote on its confirmation during their next regular meeting on Thursday.

On July 21, a day after CL requested a copy of the PBA contract, the city issued a press release with input from city and PBA officials.

“We can’t achieve excellence as a city without excellent employees,” said Mayor Jane Castor in the statement. “Inflation has hit Tampa Bay harder than much of the country, and I felt it was important to stand behind the men and women who serve our residents so well. While many people worked from home through much of the pandemic, City of Tampa employees remained on the front lines, fixing broken pipes, testing our water, collecting our trash and recycling, and saving lives. To keep Tampa resilient, we need to be able to recruit and retain outstanding employees, so this raise is both necessary and well-deserved.”

Police unions in the U.S. occupy a controversial place in the labor movement. After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, tensions among organized labor about the place of cop unions in the movement grew among some rank-and-file union members. Police have a long history of brutally breaking up labor actions of militant workers and repressing workers’ rights, particularly those of Black, brown, and immigrant workers. And law enforcement union contracts often contain special protections that can shield officers from accountability. According to the watchdog platform Campaign Zero—which reviews and tracks police union contracts—the Tampa PBA’s contract specifically includes language that limits discipline and oversight.

Some rank-and-file union members have called for the removal of police unions, demanding that the AFL-CIO Executive Council disaffiliate from the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) and other police unions.

But Tampa’s local police union has welcomed its continued support from the city administration. And the feeling—if the mayor’s campaign finance records are any indication—is mutual. During Castor’s 2019 campaign for mayor, her PAC received $2,000 in donations from the Tampa PBA.

“The last few years have been incredibly challenging for law enforcement, and this contract reflects an acknowledgment by the Mayor and City of Tampa of the service and sacrifices that our members have provided and will continue to provide in the future,” said Tampa PBA President Darla Portman, of the union’s new contract
The past few years have indeed been challenging for TPD. The department has been plagued with division over vaccines and wearing masks, even during the height of the pandemic. Last year alone, the department was caught up in at least 19 scandals that the public knows of, as violent crimes such as homicide surged in Tampa.

This year, the controversies are piling up again. This month, TPD was caught using a spying tactic to pursue crimes; critics call the tactic unconstitutional. Last month, officers were caught making fun of a dog shooting that occurred at the hands of TPD and an officer accused his supervisor of imposing DUI quotas, leading to allegedly improper arrests.

And the city is currently under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for TPD’s “crime free multi-housing” program, which targeted mainly Black renters for eviction.

This is just to name a handful of problems at TPD.

Despite the issues within the department, the city has awarded the police with increasing budgets. In the wake of the George Floyd uprising, TPD’s budget grew more than any other major city in 2021. There’s some precedent for city councils in other parts of the country rejecting law enforcement union contracts—in Denver, Austin, and Westfield, Massachusetts for example. But it’s yet to be seen whether there is an appetite for that here, at least among those with the authority to deny the contract.

Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB3 into law, which prohibits municipalities from reducing current police budgets, but not from denying raises.

The Restorative Justice Coalition, a group focused on civil and economic equality, said it is “disappointed to see more of the same in Tampa” in regards to the police raise.

“Despite scandal after scandal, Tampa Police Department continues to receive additional funding,” RJC wrote in an email statement. “When will Tampa leadership think with the bigger picture in mind? We urge the City Council to reject the increase and instead place all such monies into a non-faith based housing first program led by the City.”

RJC pointed out that studies have shown that more policing does not equate to public safety. The group points out that many have argued that a society where everyone's needs are met will actually increase overall public health.

“We hope the City Council will stand up to this and provide an appropriate check on the budget,” RJC wrote.