Venice fire fighters are concerned that their pay disparity may not be properly communicate to the council

To Whom It May Concern,

I’m writing on the upcoming eve of your executive session regarding our pay opener proposal. I hope that you enter this meeting with the understanding that our disparity is significantly greater than that which you may be presented by HR or others. The numbers you will be presented offer numbers from an expired or fully matured contract from Sarasota County. On a further note, North Port, Charlotte County, and Englewood are in the process of negotiation which will place us further behind them as well. With the immediate increases by the Punta Gorda City Council of $10,000.00 per step we look to become the lowest-paid department in the tri-county area (Sarasota, Charlotte, Manatee). We understand that this comes at a cost, but we also understand that if we continue to ignore this issue we will fall further behind and start seeing even further issues with recruitment and retention. To provide the City Citizens with the best, we must recruit and retain people at the most competitive levels possible. We no longer live in an era of few Firefighter jobs and hundreds of applicants. It has become a widespread Employee market in this field. And with fewer people enrolling in the Fire Academy/EMT/Paramedic school, things only get more difficult. Being Competitive is crucial for our future as a department. We hope to have your support as we’ve discussed in the past, in fixing this gap, and allowing us to move into the future being the best agency available.

We thank you for your push to increase our staffing as we have now addressed one of our major concerns. We look forward to fixing this issue so that we can enter a future that will assuredly make each one of you even more proud of the Fire Department that protects this city. The Bravest of Venice looks to you to help us in a situation that will otherwise become a long-term pandemic of recruitment and retention.

We understand no individual responses can be made under the Florida Sunshine Laws. The hope is that these E-Mails invoke discussion and action on this Vital Executive Session on Tuesday. We Look Forward to your Response.

“Words May Inspire, but only action creates change”

-Simon Sinek

Regards,

Tyler Eaton

Battalion Chief

City of Venice Fire Department