By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream will bump up its starting salary for police officers $4,000, to $70,000, and give its veteran officers a $4,000 across-the-board raise.

Town commissioners agreed to the higher pay at their Aug. 9 meeting.

“Everybody’s competing because everybody’s having trouble hiring and retaining, so they’re throwing money at it,” Police Chief Richard Jones said.

Jones passed out a chart showing that the town’s police force pay ranks in the lower half of Palm Beach County municipalities.

“So that kind of puts us, Chief, with these different positions right now kind of the median range for the county,” Vice Mayor Tom Stanley said of the raises.

Jones and Town Manager Greg Dunham said they would propose a step plan next year with police raises based on length of service to rein in the pay boosts. Starting salaries were $52,250 in October 2022, then lifted to $61,250 in June 2023 and $66,000 last October.

“If we keep going like this, a five-year police officer’s going to be making $200,000 a year,” Dunham said.

Dunham also said he plans to give $5,000 pay raises to Town Clerk Renee Basel, who has leadership roles in municipal clerks associations and serves as the town’s human resources director, and to Public Works Director Anthony Beltran, who is acting like an owner’s representative in dealing with Gulf Stream’s road and drainage project.

“I have contractors walk up to him and ask him, how do I do this?” Dunham said.

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