Port Orange Police Association, IUPA Local 6051

11/08/2023

Come on out and enjoy a great burger while supporting a great cause!! We hope to see you there on November 22nd!!

11/08/2023

10/10/2023

Two of our unit took some time out of their shift to brighten this young man’s day. Well done gentlemen

I.U.P.A. Local Port Orange Police Association, #6051 Members and Veterans Officer Clay and Officer Rette made a little boy’s 9th birthday really special. Braden dreams of being a police officer one day! Port Orange Police Department shared about Braden’s birthday on Facebook with the below photo...

08/24/2023

Another critical incident occurred tonight in the city, involving two people who were shot. Patrol had multiple parties at multiple scenes, and due to low staffing issues had to request aid from numerous surrounding agencies. While we are thankful for the aid of the Volusia Sherrif’s Office, South Daytona Police Department, New Smyrna Beach Police Department and other agencies, we would be even more grateful if the city council would finally ante up with meanfingul improvements to our wages and pension, so that we could be fully staffed and handle things on our own. Sadly, if you want a well staffed and well trained police department that can respond to these types of dangerous, life-threatening incidents it’s not going to be cheap. But the alternative is far more costly….

08/05/2023

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Orlando Police Department officers wounded in the line of duty tonight, and all the other officers and deputies working tirelessly to bring their attacker to justice

07/13/2023

We lost yet another officer today. And yet again, it’s one who has less than one year of service with us. The officer sent the union the following message regarding his resignation, as well as his permission to share it-
“July 13, 2023

IUPA –

I have put in my resignation from the department. The compensation and benefits provided by the city disrespect the risk to life and limb that is required daily. I had hoped the city would recognize the officer’s sacrifice for the city and need to provide for their family, however, the city has shown no compassion. Due to this I must seek other employment options. I can only hope the city will see the error in its ways and provide a better future for the officers I leave behind.

Sincerely,


Matthew Collins”

07/03/2023

A message to the City of Port Orange, from the President of the Port Orange Police Association, Jarrad Alevisatos,

I have done my due diligence to be a valued asset and partner to your city administration and council. I have provided open dialogue for benefits to keep officers of value employed so you, the city, can retain the confidence of knowing your citizens are protected by the best officers around. For years now, I have been ignored, turned away and brushed aside. Every message I have delivered regarding staffing, morale, and recruitment constantly, by this city council, has been written off. Your city police officers’ young and old, have asked for your support and fair benefits to provide the best service they continue to give, but you have failed them. In response to the most recent wage proposal provided by your city department head, already frustrated officers have had their hopes thrown away. Below are five officers, who will remain anonymous for fear of city administration retaliation, have provided me with their own words of why they will be vacating the City of Port Orange in the near future due to failing city support.

• Officer 1 (0-2 years of service) – “I am looking into employment opportunities with Volusia Sheriffs Office due to the extremely high cost of health insurance, high contribution to pension, low pension benefits, and low take home pay. All these things are better addressed by VSO to the point where I could be bringing home a thousand dollars or more a month, which I cannot help but feel the need for, given I have a family.”

• Officer 2 (5-10 years of service) – “I am waiting to find out about COLA (cost of living adjustment) and the cap, given inflation. I have been actively talking with Edgewater. While they don't currently have COLA, they have an additional benefit using the 185 fund which interests me. They’re also very happy with a waiting list for hires. I've additionally explored several of the state investigative agencies like the Department of Financial and Economic Crimes and the Department of Business and Professional Regulations, though those are pay cuts... for now. My problem isn't with the Police Department, it's with the city. We currently have a sitting city council member who has COLA but feels we are undeserving, and it pi**es me off. I just became an empty nester so now I can start working for me and take the risk of being where they appreciate what we contribute and not just lip service.”

Officer 3 (2-5 years of service) – “I have an application completed for Florida Highway Patrol, my reason for leaving is simply put, the city is not willing to stay competitive with other surrounding agencies creating an exhaustive, overworked under-paid environment. Furthermore, by not staying competitive, City of Port Orange is left with scraping the bottom of the barrel for applicants, people not even considered by other agencies. In order to continue to do the job I enjoy; I will seek out FHP to help keep me happy.”

• Officer 4 (15-20 years of service) – “I have been with the City of Port Orange for more than 15 years. In all this time, I cannot remember when the city (council and or the city manager) had our support. I have lived in the city for 95% of my life. It's sad that I must go donate plasma to help make ends meet. There are talks about health insurance being raised an additional 10% but the city wants to give me a 7.4% raise. This city (council) praises themselves on having a safe city and a beautiful city for the people that live in it. Half of that would not have been accomplished if it wasn't for the police department. I don't understand how agencies around us can offer much lower insurance along with higher pay. A couple years ago, Councilman Scott Stiltner had an interview with the News Journal about making the city managers pay competitive, his quote is: “"If you lose a really good city manager, you don't know what you may get next,"”. The same could be said about the police department. The city should have this thought process with us, but they don't. That is the reason why I will be looking at Voluisa Sheriff Office (VSO) and Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), higher pay and lower health insurance.”

• Officer 5 (5-10 years of service) – “I am looking to vacate this agency for a position at New Smyrna Beach Police Department. The reason I am looking to leave this agency is no city support, low morale, and due to the low staffing crisis, there is no opportunities to move further in this agency.”

The people of the Port Orange Police Department came to work every day with the knowledge they would sacrifice their limbs and life to protect others and keep the community safe. A large majority of the police officers do not reside in Port Orange because of the low benefits. I have heard their cries for help and have provided this knowledge to the citizens, staff and anyone who would hear. It is disrespectful to even know that a current Port Orange councilman has openly mentioned how “nothing happens in Port Orange” further attempting to dimmish the police department’s value and the work put in everyday by these officers. To that councilman, and others who feel the police officers have an “easy, do nothing” career, 40% of your patrol positions are vacant so feel free to come apply.


Regards.

Jarrad Alevisatos
President
Port Orange Police Association
IUPA Local 6051

06/17/2023

Last year we began negotiating with the city for improvements to the pension system. The pension had not been touched in over a decade, and there are numerous changes we wished to enact. For instance, reducing the requirement for full retirement from 25 years to 20. The pension is also a two tiered plan that leaves officers hired after 2011 without things like cost of living adjustments (COLA) or the ability to go into a deferred retirement plan (DROP); all of which are things that most local law enforcement agencies have agreed to for their personnel. Due to delays outside our control we still have not received a full counter offer from the city after we made our initial proposal in 2022. However, the city negotiating team provided us with a partial counter on June 15th, which would keep full retirement at 25 years and INCREASE the age of retirement from 48 to 52. We still don’t understand how raising the age of retirement makes the agency more attractive to current or prospective officers, but if anybody wants to reach out to the city council and find out we’d appreciate it.

06/06/2023

Staffing update: The patrol division has 16 open positions, but in reality it’s more like 23, as seven of the officers we have are still in training, and thus can’t operate on their own yet. We also still have open positions in the detective and motor divisions, which can’t reasonably be filled until the staffing on patrol improves. Since the start of the calendar year the agency has had nine officers resign/retire, with more stating their intention to leave soon if wages and the pension benefits do not improve. No new officers have been hired this year, despite our training/recruiting team’s best efforts.

As a result of these staffing issues, the number of officers available to answer calls for service and respond to any critical incidents is lower than we’d like. For instance, from 05/14 until 06/05, there have been fifteen times in which patrol shifts have worked with one or more open “zones”. There are seven such zones into which the city is divided, with one officer (typically) assigned to each zone. Some shifts have worked with as few as five officers, for a city with over 60,000 residents. It would only take 1-2 critical incidents or complex calls for an entire shift to be taken out of service, which could potentially leave you or your loved ones waiting for hours to get police services.

While the city has taken small steps to improve benefits for our officers, it’s clearly not enough. We are unable to recruit or retain enough officers for a city of this size, and this staffing issue will only exacerbate itself as time goes on. We need to fix the issue of compression in our wage plan, and fix the pension plan that has been broken for over a decade.

04/14/2023

Contract meeting with the city will be starting momentarily. The video will be live streamed on our YouTube channel

04/06/2023

In the last week we’ve had two more officers announce their resignation from the police department. Both officers had less than a year of service, and one was not even out of training. One of those former officers gave us permission to share his resignation letter, to give some insight as to what officers deal with here. Please keep in mind the letter may not mirror every officer’s experience at the department, but some of the issues listed in it are universal, such as the high cost of health insurance for dependents

03/25/2023