By Steve Plunkett
Among the new faces in town briefly this fall were four police officers, the result of a three-month hiring spree by Police Chief Edward Allen.
“We do have a full staff on board at this time,” Allen told Gulf Stream’s Town Commission on Nov. 12. “It actually feels good to be able to fill the position and have enough people to make it work.”
But shortly after Allen’s announcement, Jesus “Al” Moreno, one of the new officers, resigned after not quite four months on the job.
The latest hire is Michael Balak, 30, who joined the force on Oct. 26. Balak became the Police Department’s elusive 13th officer, a position the commission authorized in September 2020 but was filled for only a week that November and for several weeks this November because of employee turnover.
Balak, who spent two years as a Manalapan officer and five with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, also holds the distinction of being Gulf Stream’s youngest town employee, displacing Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro. Nazzaro is 39; Balak is 30.
The other new officers are Michael LeStrange, a 39-year veteran of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office hired Oct. 5; and Robert Coppin, a 30-year veteran of the Riviera Beach Police Department hired July 12.
Coppin took the spot of Marshall Felter, who left in May after five years with the department. Moreno and LeStrange replaced Ramon Batista, who retired in July after five years with the department, and Christopher Fahey, who moved in July to the Palm Beach County School District.
Fahey’s departure to the school police force was foreshadowed in 2019 when Town Manager Greg Dunham was authorized to give all the officers a $3,750 pay raise to keep Gulf Stream competitive with other coastal towns. Dunham said at the time that a 150-officer hiring blitz by the school district was making it difficult to attract qualified job applicants.
“Most of them … would be more interested in going to the school board — you don’t work nights, you don’t work summertime — and so I think that’s what’s happening,” Dunham said at the time.
Having a 13th officer means three cruisers can be on patrol at the same time instead of two.
LeStrange and Balak joined the department after their new co-workers voted to unionize in late August and early September. The Police Benevolent Association of Palm Beach County will hold collective bargaining negotiations with the town’s outside labor attorney on Jan. 11.
Dunham said the town had hoped officers would decide they did not need the union’s help.
“The town and our commission value the close relationship we have with our Police Department and we were concerned that a union could cause a loss of personal communication due to officers having to go through a union steward,” he said.
In other town business Nov. 13, Dunham said he was concerned that Florida Power & Light might not be able to remove electric poles until too close to Christmas and New Year’s. If the timing works out that way, Dunham said he would have FPL reschedule the work for January.
Removing the poles is the final step in Gulf Stream’s drawn-out utility-burying project.
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