By Alexi Howk

PORT ST. LUCIE — Fewer police officers on the streets means minor traffic accidents and some crimes won’t be investigated, Police Chief Donald Shinnamon said Tuesday.

Last week’s announcement that 24 police officers and three civilian employees would be laid off Sept. 24 represents a total of 89 jobs lost within the department since 2008, Shinnamon said. The department had 262 sworn officers in the 2007-2008 budget year and is now down to 206, Shinnamon said.

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PORT ST. LUCIE — The International Union of Police Associations, which represents the city’s police officers, put a sign on a billboard Sunday at U.S. 1 and Jennings Road to protest the city sending layoff notices to eight police officers.

The notices advised the officers their last day of employment would be Sept. 30.

One side of the billboard reads, “Welcome to Port St. Lucie! Violent crime is up 14.4 percent! Feel safe???”

The other side breaks down what the city spent on the civic center and plans to spend to bring a private digital production studio to the city. It also cites a figure, $1.5 million, as the annual upkeep of the botanical garden project.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A year after Sheriff’s Office employees got a $1,000 bonus in lieu of raises from retiring Sheriff Roy Raymond, current Sheriff Deryl Loar is expected to give at least some of them a bigger bonus, as much as $1,600 each.

It’s the product of an unusual situation, sheriff’s Comptroller Harry Hall said Monday. He said he expects to have $747,000 unspent at the end of the month.

Some of the savings, he said, came from budgeting $3.48 per gallon last fall for patrol cars’ gasoline and seeing prices drop to $1 less. And there haven’t been as many jail inmates hospitalized, he added.

“It’s like the planets all lined up,” Hall said. “It’s unrealistic to think this can continue (in future years).”
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PORT ST. LUCIE — City property owners may be able to avoid a proposed 26 percent increase in their property taxes.

During a special meeting Wednesday, the City Council unanimously agreed to use half of the city’s general fund reserves to keep the property tax rate at its current rate of $4.22 per $1,000 of taxable value. The council will formally vote on setting the property tax rate during scheduled 7 p.m. public hearings Sept. 14 and Sept. 28 at City Hall.

Using the city’s median home price of $112,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption, an average city property tax bill using the current rate would be $261, excluding taxes from other agencies, such as the school and fire districts.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Offering the unions a “final” opportunity to save eight police officer jobs and avoid other layoffs, the city agreed to guarantee no layoffs next year in exchange for a wage freeze.

But the Coastal Florida Public Employees Association, which represents the city’s civilian employees, voted Monday night to reject the city’s offer, said union acting Executive Director Johnny Bingham. The city’s other two unions, the Florida Police Benevolent Association, which represents lieutenants and sergeants, and the International Union of Police Associations, which represents police officers, have not come to an agreement.

Bingham said the Police Benevolent Association, which he also directs, was sending a letter to the city Wednesday advising officials they are interested in coming back to the table to negotiate.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council Monday night unanimously agreed to move forward with purchasing 15 acres from Tradition Outlet LLC for $10 million, a move that puts up half the state’s contribution to help a Hollywood executive set up a digital production studio.

The studio could create up to 500 jobs and bring Florida State University’s Film Studies program to the Treasure Coast.

The package includes the local governments building a 150,000-square-foot studio for Hobe Sound-based Wyndcrest Holdings, a private investment firm focused on entertainment and Internet technology headed by Jupiter Island resident John Textor.
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Since her employer began closing on Fridays, Dawn Gilmore has turned her photography hobby into a money-making business that is helping to offset her lost income.

Without a lot of new real estate development, business has been slow for the Houston Cuozzo Group, a landscape design firm in Stuart. After laying off one-third of the staff of 18 last year, the firm started closing on alternate Fridays last September as a way to reduce workers’ hours and cut costs. In March, the firm started closing every Friday.

Across the Treasure Coast, many residents who have avoided layoffs are facing reduced hours — which means less money in their wallets. Some are spending their new-found spare time with family, home improvement projects or hobbies. Others are looking for ways to make up the lost income, such as a side business or a second job.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Which would you prefer?

A 26 percent property tax increase, cutting 117 city jobs, having 16 fewer police officers, closing the city Parks and Recreation Department and its facilities or not tuning into PSL-TV.

Those are the options the City Council plans to discuss Thursday and Friday as the group looks at an $11 million deficit for next year’s budget. (more…)

STUART — It just doesn’t make sense to Bill Wallace.

Why would Chrysler close a profitable dealership in a growing area?

Why would the beleaguered automaker allow a franchise in out-of-the-way Okeechobee to remain open, while closing several on the more populated Treasure Coast?

He’s selling cars. He bought more of them than he needed from Chrysler this year, at the urging of the company’s top brass, he says.

But his Wallace Chrysler Jeep in Fort Pierce is still slated to shut down after June 9, along with 788 other dealerships that Chrysler decided to close as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.

“We weathered this tsunami, and in America, you should be rewarded for that, not punished,” said Wallace, a third-generation dealer whose grandfather opened a Chevrolet dealership in West Palm Beach in the 1930s.

Wallace is among more than 300 dealers across the country who have joined forces to fight Chrysler’s decision. The group, called the Committee of Chrysler Affected Dealers, wants more time. More time to prove it would be a mistake to ax them.

But if Chrysler gets its way in bankruptcy court – as many industry watchers believe it will – five Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers between Indiantown Road in Jupiter and Vero Beach will be among those that close next month. (more…)

St. Lucie County Clerk of Courts Joe Smith announced this afternoon that he is offering buyouts and early retirement packages to some employees but will eventually have to lay off others by July to make up for a $546,000 budget cut.

Smith told his employees about the imminent layoffs in an email this afternoon, saying his office received the new numbers late last week from the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation.

The new budget would give the office about $8.1 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, down from more than $8.6 million they had for the current year.

The cuts come after state lawmakers in the last legislative session voted to change the way clerk’s offices are funded.

It’s disappointing,” Smith said this afternoon. “As a manager the worst thing you can tell you employees is ‘I have to let you go.’”
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