By Steve Plunkett
Gulf Stream’s rank-and-file police officers are now card-carrying members of the Police Benevolent Association of Palm Beach County.
“Welcome,” the union said in an Oct. 6 post on Facebook following the officers’ vote. “We are very proud to be your new collective bargaining representative.”
In response, town commissioners on Oct. 8 hired I. Jeffrey Pheterson of the West Palm Beach law firm Ward Damon to negotiate a contract with the PBA.
“I know Jeff,” Vice Mayor Thomas Stanley said. “I’ve worked with him on some labor and employment matters in my professional career. He’s very well-qualified.”
Pheterson will be paid $350 per hour for his services, not to exceed $15,000.
Until the affirmative vote, Gulf Stream’s force was the only nonunionized coastal police agency from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton.
The town boosted police pay by $3,750 a year in fiscal 2020 after a survey showed its officers received less than their counterparts in Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan and Palm Beach. That pushed the lowest salary to $51,250, ahead of Manalapan and Highland Beach. Other town employees were given 3% raises.
“That really puts us right in the middle of the five cities,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said at the time.
Also on Oct. 8, Police Chief Edward Allen announced he had hired Officer Michael LeStrange, a 39-year veteran of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, and was close to hiring another officer. Allen and Capt. John Haseley are management and not included in the union. Gulf Stream also has two police sergeants and, with the new hires, nine patrol officers.
In other business, commissioners approved site plans for the first three homes on Bluewater Cove just north of Place Au Soleil. Two will be one-story model homes in Bermuda style and Anglo Caribbean. The third will be a two-story Colonial West Indies spec home.
The developer hopes to start construction next spring and finish up the following fall.
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