Sheriff makes pitch for 40 more police officers and mayor offers return of pensions (2024)

Forty more police officers and the return of pensions for new hires could be coming to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Mayor Donna Deegan's negotiators in collective bargaining talks with the Fraternal Order of Police offered Thursday to bring back pensions as an option for new hires as part of a three-year contract.

The same day, Sheriff T.K. Waters told the Mayor's Budget Review Committee he wants to hire another 40 police officers in next year's budget on top of the 80 police positions the Sheriff's Office gained over the past year, an expansion he said will help catch up with Duval County's growth.

When Deegan ran for mayor in 2023, she said she supported hiring more police and was open to bringing back pensions for police and firefighters. She has backed both initiatives during her first year as mayor, even though Waters was a high-profile endorser of Daniel Davis in the mayor's race and the Fraternal Order of Police also threw its support behind Davis.

University of North Florida political science professor MIchael Binder said he's not surprised Deegan, a Democrat, offered to return pensions.

"If you look back historically, Democrats and unions were locked at the hip for decades," he said. "The idea that Republicans became this pro-union cop party is really new and localized in a lot of ways. So it doesn't shock me that a Democrat is working positively with a union at all."

He said the support Deegan has shown for hiring more police fits the "reach across the aisle" approach she's taken with Republicans, such as Waters, in city government.

"She certainly has appointed Republicans to her administration and kind of followed through on what she said about working with the police and endorsing a budget increase the past year," Binder said. "Who knows what next year will bring, but certainly for the past year."

Jacksonville stopped pensions for new hires in 2017

The city stopped offering pensions to all new hires in city government in October 2017 after the city piled up massive amounts of unfunded obligations and Mayor Lenny Curry lead a successful campaign for a half-cent sales tax dedicated to paying down that pension debt.

Employees already enrolled at the time in city-administered pension plans, such as the Police and Fire Pension Fund, have kept earning benefits from the city plans. But everyone joining city employment since Oct. 1, 2017, could only save for retirement with 401(k) style accounts.

Deegan's offer still would keep the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund closed to new hires, but it would let them enroll in the financially stronger Florida Retirement System that covers government workers across the state.

FOP lodge President Randy Reaves said when the city stopped offering pensions to new hires, Mayor Lenny Curry's administration said other counties also would be moving away from pensions.

But seven years later, the other 66 counties still have pensions for police and firefighters and "no one's even thinking about taking their pensions away from first responders," Reaves said. "So I do give Mayor Deegan a lot of credit in the fact that she listened."

He said part of the argument for restoring pension is the Sheriff's Office has about 100 vacant police officer positions.

"We talked to her about the reasons why we should never have had the pension taken away here in Jacksonville," Reaves said. "And we showed her the data that Sheriff Waters was being handcuffed by not being on a level playing field in this highly competitive market for police officers."

The Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters reached a tentative agreement Friday on a three-year contract with pay raises and restoration of pensions in 2027. Negotiations continue on a contract with the Fraternal Order of Police.

"Out of respect for the process, we are not commenting on the active negotiations, which are going well and at the finish line," city spokesman Phillip Perry said.

Sheriff T.K. Waters' four-year goal is 200 additional officers

Separately from the union negotiations, the Mayor's Budget Review Committee heard Waters make his request for next year's budget. Waters is proposing a $630.5 million budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a 5.5% increase from this year's $597.7 million budget.

Jacksonville has suffered from violent crime for decades, but at least so far this year, homicides are trending down. As of Friday morning, the city had 39 unofficial homicides, compared to 62 at the same time in 2023, according to The Florida Times-Union's tracking data.

Jacksonville is on pace to have fewer than 100 homicides for only the third time in the 21 years since the Times-Union has chronicled the city's death toll. The total in 2023 was 157 homicides by the Times-Union's count, although the Sheriff's Office has since updated its figures to a lower total.

Waters said adding more police officers, primarily for patrol, will help stay on top of all kinds of crime.

"Violent crime is not the only thing we hear about," he told reporters. "We have so many different things that take place in the city and everyone deserves an equal amount of service, so we want to make sure we stay focused on that."

His proposed budget would have a total of 3,350 civilian employees and sworn officers, which actually would be slightly less than the 3,352 positions this year, according to documents provided to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee.

But the number of positions for sworn officers within the Sheriff's Office would be increasing again. The city added 80 police positions over the past year, including 40 police officers whose cost will be partially paid over three years by a federal COPS grant, which is short for Community Oriented Policing Services. The request for 40 more officers would be paid from the city's general fund that covers city services and would bring the total number of sworn officer positions to 1,948.

Waters told the Mayor's Budget Review Committee that when people call the Sheriff's Office for assistance, they "expect us to respond in a timely manner."

"And in order for us to keep up and be able to do that, I think it's very important for us to continue to try to grow as we move forward," he said.

Sheriff's Office has large number of vacant positions

Waters faced questions about whether the Sheriff's Office should first take advantage of all the patrol positions already authorized and by fill them with police officers before asking for more slots. The patrol and enforcement division, which is the single largest division in the Sheriff's Office, had 61 vacant police officer positions, according to a snapshot of staffing levels provided to the committee.

Waters said the Sheriff's Office is about to kick off a training academy for 40 police recruits. He said he hopes the ongoing contract talks between Deegan's administration and the police union can provide a compensation package for officers that will attract "the best and brightest" for filling future academy classes.

If Deegan and City Council agree to Waters' request, the next round of police positions would put him more than halfway toward the goal he set in 2023 of adding 200 positions over a four-year period.

Settlement authority: Jacksonville City Council gives sheriff official say despite community concern

City Council member Nick Howland said he'll support Waters' budget request when it comes before council, including the 40 police officers. Waters said based on national benchmarks, the Sheriff's Office should have more than 2,000 officers for a city the size of Jacksonville.

"That's something that City Council will look favorably on because we know, as the sheriff clearly stated, that we're understaffed as far as patrol officers," Howland said after hearing the presentation to the Mayor's Budget Review Committee.

Deegan, who supported Waters' request for additional police last year, will present her proposed budget to City Council in July.

Florida Times-Union Metro Editor Scott Butler contributed to this report.