Council amends budget to include pay increases for 250 OPD employees

Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken talks to the Ocala City Council during an Ocala City Council meeting at Ocala City Hall in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.

The Ocala City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to approve Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken’s request to amend the 2021-2022 budget to appropriate salary adjustments for the department’s staff for a total sum of $2,137,018.

Balken said the additional funds will be used to give salary increases to nearly 250 positions, both sworn and non-sworn within the department. Balken said the amount of increase will depend “upon time-in-grade for each employee within their current position.”

Balken told the council during the Tuesday meeting that, like other employers in the region, he was having a hard time filling certain positions within the department. Balken reported 17 total current vacancies, with 20 police officers in training or recruit school.

“This adjustment was requested due to current trends (competition) in the private sector, along with a need to stay competitive with other law enforcement agencies in our region. This should ease the challenges we’ve been facing with recruitment and retention of qualified employees,” wrote Balken in response to the Gazette’s inquiry following the meeting.

“I intend to complete our long-term strategic plan prior to the new budget process, which will begin in January. That plan will include growing the agency to ensure we can continue to deliver police services at the level our citizens deserve. In order to attract the most qualified personnel, we first needed to ensure salaries were competitive,” wrote Balken.

In addition to the approval of pay raises, City Council members also previously supported the chief’s budget requests at the start of the Oct. 1st fiscal year to fund additional job posts: four 911 dispatchers, one 911 supervisor, one part time records technician and one latent fingerprint examiner.