I started out my unintended career as a legal secretary by filling a “temporary” receptionist job while waiting for my big break on Broadway, or the silver screen, whichever came first. I figured it was safer than waiting tables considering I could never carry two plates at a time without dropping one, much less balance several of them on one arm. I never did get discovered or even make it to New York, or Hollywood, for that matter. But I can proudly boast being able to type 200+ words per minute with very few typos. Folks, that is no mean feat.
One of the few smart decisions I made in my life was to take a high school typing class when I finally realized that brain surgery was not in my future after barely passing chemistry. Acting class soon followed since medical school was obviously out of the question. In any event, I ended up here. In North Miami Beach. The hoped for Emmy or Oscar has been replaced by a couple of recognitions from the Miami New Times, and a Chaz Award. Sort of.
Even though my typing skills were superb, I was not so adept at working with office supplies. My first boss at a law firm just happened to be a University of Miami real estate law professor who I’m pretty sure took pity on me watching me engage war with carbon paper and white out, yet was impressed with my ability to produce professional letters and documents despite my frustration. He took me under his wing, taught me everything there was to know about real estate transactions, and sent me to classes and seminars, which eventually earned me the title of “Real Estate Closing Secretary.” Even with all the preparation and frame-able certificates I received, officiating at my first closing was a less than stellar performance. I almost ran out of the room in tears, wishing I had learned how to balance plates on my arm instead. Fortunately, I stuck with it. With time and experience, closing a real estate transaction became second nature and I eventually earned the title on my certificates. My on-the-job training experience was an infinitely more valuable asset than any one of those framed pieces of paper on the wall.
My point is that there is no substitute for experience – whether in legal services, or teaching, or police work, or even waiting tables. At the risk of sounding cliche, practice really does make perfect.
In the mad frenzy to desperately balance diminishing local, county and state budgets, it’s become quite fashionable to entice, and even force, veteran workers into early retirement and replace them with fresh faced newbies who will work for half the price. If common sense has taught us anything at all, we should know that this is a huge mistake. As much as I admire the younger generation for their intelligence, ingenuity and tech savvy, nothing – absolutely nothing – beats experience.
Any teacher will tell you that his first job in the classroom was pretty much like being thrown to the wolves. Especially if he taught a middle school class. Much like sharks, students smell new teacher blood and always go in for the kill. Rookie teachers can literally have palpitations every single morning at the mere thought of facing the mob of rabid students waiting for his arrival. It’s a miracle teachers make it through the first school year. It’s only by trial and error that the truly dedicated teacher learns what works and what doesn’t in the classroom. If he’s willing to learn by his mistakes and create inventive ways to reach individual students by working with each one’s strengths and weaknesses, his teaching skills will improve. But that takes time and experience.
The same goes for police academy graduates. No amount of classroom hours, crime simulation or gun range training could possibly prepare a rookie police officer for the very real car chases, gang shootouts or robberies in progress he will have to deal with once he gets out on the streets. I imagine there’s not a rookie cop alive who hasn’t questioned the wisdom of his own decision to go into police work after handling, or mishandling as it were, his very first call. Like rookie teachers, it’s a miracle so many of them stay with the job.
Second guessing our choices might be human nature, but the good news is that in any profession, the more we stick with it, the better we get at it. There is absolutely no substitute for experience.
In response to a comment on my previous blog, It sucks to be us, that North Miami Beach might be losing a veteran police officer with 27 years of experience, Carl M. wrote, “27 years? And your point is?” He obviously missed The Point.
While my job does not entail the shaping of young minds or the protecting of lives, the ability to successfully close a real estate transaction serves an important purpose. The fact that I have been doing it for over 35 years suggests that you’d be better off asking me to examine your title or prepare your settlement statement than someone who has only done it a handful of times. Closing your real estate transaction might not be a life altering experience, but it sure helps knowing that you’re in good hands, right?
By the same token, the best teachers my kids had in school were those who knew how to impart the lessons in a way that created a desire for learning. Some of the most inadequate teachers I’ve known were brand new college graduates who were merely trained in “teaching to the test.” These teachers were incapable of thinking outside the box, not only because they weren’t encouraged to do so, but also because they lacked the real life classroom experience essential to becoming a successful educator. After years of working with students on a one on one basis, veteran teachers are infinitely more valuable than their rookie counterparts. As such, they are worth paying more. Unless, of course, you think your kids aren’t worth it. Teachers are paid a pittance as it is, but that’s another story altogether. The few extra bucks we have to pay veteran teachers is laughably trifling in itself, but still we complain. Forcing good veteran teachers out of the classroom will only further diminish the quality of education. Can we afford that?
As for police work, picture this scenario. Let’s assume the worst, and you are in the life threatening situation of being held hostage at gunpoint. If a police officer was negotiating your release, would you rather have 27 years of experience talking the gunman down from the ledge? Or a rookie, who hasn’t even begun to master the fine art of hostage negotiation, on the other end of the phone? I don’t know about you, but my money’s on the one who’s done this before. Granted, the chances of this happening to you is probably one in a million. But it does happen. There are SWAT teams for a reason, you know. Even in the course of “ordinary” police work, such as solving homicides, stopping gang warfare, busting drug rings, and investigating any number of crimes, the more years a police officer has under his belt, the better chance he has of solving crimes and closing cases. Unless I’m mistaken, that’s the reason we have a police department in the first place. (Otherwise, we might as well hire rent-a-cops and hope for the best.) With any luck, most of us won’t ever need to call the police. But I don’t know about you – I sleep better at night knowing I can.
The systematic and deliberate attempts at driving experienced veteran teachers and police officers out of service is detrimental to our society as a whole. Not only are we contributing to the destruction of the middle class, we are also devaluing the most necessary components of the service industry. While the world could survive without real estate closing secretaries (no matter how important we think we are), we simply cannot afford to dismiss the value of those people who have dedicated, and continue to dedicate, their lives and careers to teach and protect us.
We somehow justify the millions of dollars actors and athletes earn to make a movie or play a game. (Damn, I really should have gone to Broadway!) We think nothing of paying doctors whatever it takes to keep us healthy and alive. We even pay plumbers fifty bucks an hour to fix our toilets. Heck, we pay auto mechanics more!
I don’t know about you, but if I needed surgery I’d rather be operated on by a doctor who has done hundreds (preferably thousands) of such surgeries than be one of his first patients. I wouldn’t even put my PT Cruiser, much less a Mercedes, in the hands of an inexperienced mechanic. Yet, we have come to think it’s okay to experiment on our children or put our lives in the hands of inexperienced police officers.
Surely, the education of our children and the public safety of our community are slightly more important than the arts or sports. They are just as important as finding the right surgeon. And yet, teachers and police officers make far less than even plumbers. How misplaced are our priorities anyway?
I never said that pension reform isn’t critical to the survival of North Miami Beach and other cities. The current pension plans (not to mention the ensuing lawsuits over their reform) are truly unsustainable. But losing our veteran teachers and police officers will only create more problems than reform will solve. There simply has got to be another way.
It’s time to get our priorities straight!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
Part of joining the drop should be to have a mandatory “shadow” for the five years of the program. This shadow would be on probation, absorbing every available bit of experience, wisdom and knowledge from the retiring officer, and he or she would make a percentage of the drop money set aside to be used as a bonus once the officer passes probation and officially joins the force. The drop program should be for the mutual benefit of both the employee and the city, but at some point it became just for the benefit of the employee. There needs to be a balance.
Thanks for the idea, you provided more in your comment than the city has provided in 2 years of negotiations and with $200,000 of your taxpaying dollars in attorneys fees. You think i’m kidding, i’m not.
Over the past year, the DROP program has earned an average of 19%. The cops get 8 and the city has kept 11. Seems they have benefited from this program. I’m sure your Mayor will say otherwise, but then again, he made it clear before he was mayor how he felt about cops. Remember the comment that he needs to wear a bullet proof vest around NMB cops. Anyways, were use to his negative demeanor towards us, we’ve been dealing with it for a few years now.
Why do certain cops only quote statistics when it’s in their favor? Sure, there might have been a 19% increase in pension returns last year but you certainly won’t average that number in the previous six or seven years where there were outright losses to the fund and in other years only a miniscule return. But you citizen haters only want to whine about how anyone pointing facts like this out to you are simply “cop haters”.
Why do certain citizens come on here blog after blog with nothing but doom and gloom with not one ounce of support to an officers salary or benefits?
Your missing the point ‘Woody”. Move on and stop looking in the past and hating on those that have earned the benefits they currently have. No one has pointed out the setbacks from economy but you. “Green Machine” was only pointing out that “over the past year” (clearly stated), the market has done great and the city has benefited. Of course the market was crappy around 2008-2011, but we all know that, Move On!!! Everyone is trying too but you apparently.
Lets not forget with the mayors illegal pension reform, he’s giving general employees a DROP and the cops no DROP. Can you say Punitive!!!!! Hahaha, he’s such a pathetic loser!!!!
Now you want to compare what the cops will be getting with what the general employees are getting? All of a sudden the general employees now become relevant to you? What happened to your “if your not sworn, you’re not born” mentality in this case?
You make the case as to why the City Council imposed what they did. You only see things through your biased perspective on losing your gravy train.
LOL!!! Whats funny is all those comparisons came from citizens like you who wanted to see a cops salary and benefits cut since the rest of America was going through financial hardships. It only works when it’s in your favor, right?!?!!
In that case, you’ve made our point, thanks
Mayor, our DROP fund has been averaging 19% for the past year so we’d like our return to increase from 8%-12%. After all, your using our retirement check to make this city money.
The city has saved 21 million dollars the past few years (I guess the sky isn’t falling) and we haven’t received a raise in over 7 years. See to it that we get a raise, thanks again 🙂
“if your not sworn, you’re not born”?!?!?!, oookkaayyyyy. I’m not sure where that came from Wendy but from the sound of your comments, you should probably not spend so much time coming up with cop sayings and think more about how you can volunteer your time to this community to make it a better place for its citizens and employees.
Yeah Mayor, give us OUR share of that $21 million dollars that the city has buried in its mattress. We deserve a big piece of it because we pay property taxes here, we pay for the 25 years of property tax bonds that paid for the police station and water plant, and we demand our take-home cars back, and long live the police union! All for one, and one for all!
I’m liking how you think SuperCop. But it’s time to put that book down and go nite nite, take off your little cape and let daddy tuck you into bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Daddy has to go to work now and deal with angry and envious citizens. Here’s your bottle, mwuahhhh!!!!
For the moron who didn’t understand the point of losing this officer with 27 years of experience he’s not just some old timer driving around in a patrol car handling calls for service. He was our most experienced homicide and robbery detective. That type of experience is not easily replaced. Now that he’s been bullied out of here by our wonderful mayor and council he’s taking his talents to another agency where I’m sure he’ll be appreciated and where I’m sure he’ll use those talents to help them solve homicides and robberies. Our loss,their gain. Thanks mayor and council.
Give us a break about the Mayor running off the 27 year police detective. The truth is that he was at the end of his career in NMB and is ready to move on to greener pastures. While experience does have its value, once past the ten year stage, the added benefit is not as great as in the first ten years. Additionally, years of experience also has its drawbacks. The recently retired city manager was employed over 30 years at NMB and the city if better off now that she is gone. The new manager looks at our city and sees new opportunites for redevelopment and restructuring.
Same with the police force. New rookies bring in fresh ambition and the ability to chase after bad guys, and reshape the police force.
By the way, congradulations to the cops who worked those special details that busted a major drug dealer in our city and confiscated all his cash. Thank you for your efforts.
He was at the end of his career. Really!!! And you know this how??? That officer worked 11 years with South Miami PD. He left that city and was recruited here under the presumption that NMB honored its contracts and would give him the benefits and pension promised to him for leaving South Miami in the first place. He saw that this new Mayor and Council was on their vengeance to destoy the police department and the pension system anyway they can so he decided to leave before they had a chance to destory his. You know that “gravy train” DROP program we have. It’s so lucrative that he decided to leave that behind and take a $50k year job with FDLE. So great response “Barry S”, you completely wrong but it’s really okay, there’s a lot of citizens in this city, like yourself, that think they know the ins and outs and everyday business of the police department. Sorry Barry but your out of the loop.
And I’m sure that officer was leaving anyway to start a new pension in a new city in a year or two after they concluded the DROP. Like its been said before what are you going to do when they need to leave after the DROP ends? Stop the nonsense.
I hear the coming Chief has a very credible track record. The city is moving forward with or without reform, but reform will help the process. The city can’t spend off of it’s money on pensions, no?
I’m sure you have no idea what your talking about. None of them were anywhere near the end of their drops. One left before he even entered the drop so get a clue before posting on a topic that your completely ignorant about. They left here because it sucks to work here. Why else would they walk away their”pot of gold”?
Yeah Barry he passed up his “pot of gold” as you people like to call our DROP so he could get the hell out of this dump. So do the math. Our DROP is for 8 years. At the end of his career with NMB? Sorry not even close. So before you come on here and run your mouth about things you don’t know anything about do a little research before making a fool of yourself.
Stephanie,
If the recently imposed contract is any indication of the city’s appreciation (or lack thereof) for seniority, then your article is spot on.
North Miami Beach, like every other police agency I know, used to reward their police officers with something called “longevity”. It was special compensation to reward them for their long years of service and dedication, but also it served as an enticement to prevent them from choosing early retirement.
The handful of North Miami Beach police officers with 20 or more years of experience used to receive an extra 80 hours of vacation plus $1000 in additional pay. Now, thanks to the recently imposed contract, everyone with 10 or more years all receive the same “longevity”. Just 24 hours of leave and no extra pay. Apparently, three extra days off per year is all that 27 years of experience is worth to this mayor and council.
Apparently, this mayor and council feel an officer has nothing else to learn beyond 10 years of service. Maybe “Woody” is the mayor’s alias used to post comments on your blog, because they both sure seem to think alike in that regard.
There is a very good reason why all other police agencies include a “longevity” bonus in their contracts, but once again this mayor and council seem to think they know better than the rest of the world. Even as so many of their senior officers flee their employ, they still fail to see the connection between their decisions and ours. Their rigidity does the public no favors.
NMB Cop, you are living in the 1990’s when unions were strong enough to implement all types of perks and fringes for their members. Longevity pay, take-home cars, MLK holidays and other costly benefits were the norm amongst all agencies. The job market was also a lot tighter and many of these fringes and perks were put in place to attract new hires and keep existing employees. Fast forward 20 years and the market has changed considerably. There is no reason to give “longevity”pay to an employee just because he attains his senior birthday status. Most employee efficiency tops out after 10 years and the additional experience gained is negligible. In fact there are studies that have been done that show ten year employees have the ideal average of experience, physical fitness, and common sense and goes downhill from that point as the employee ages.
The job market has also changed in that any ad placed in any publication or online attracts hundreds of qualified applicants for almost any government job. That’s why there are no unfilled positions in government and no shortage of applicants.
If you were elected to office and it was your job do what is in the best interest of those that elected you, would you spend your electors tax money on giving away benefits to highly paid employees, who are not residents, extra perks and benefits your own electorate doesn’t receive in their jobs? Other than in government, where does longevity pay exist anymore? Where can anyone retire, begin receiving their retirement pay, and then keep working at their highest payscale outside of government? Where does that exist?
Your brother-in-blue above also wants the city to give him a share of the 19% he claims the city made on his DROP money yet doesn’t volunteer to refund any of the pension fund losses the City had to fund in those negative investment years. Try looking at everything from the top and you actually might see both sides of the issue instead of your biased, self-serving perspective that you view from your side of the fence.
Gerald, I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but you just insulted every single employee who has a work ethic and enough dedication to an employer to make a career out of a job. You also insulted anyone over 40, and especially over 50!
I have worked for the same employer for almost 36 years and my boss will tell you that my “efficiency” did not “top out after 10 years.” In fact, my boss will tell you that I am more efficient and valuable than ever! Not only have my skills improved, but I took it upon myself to continue to learn new ones, especially since the advent of the computer age. I am as tech savvy as anyone I know and ALL my computer skills were self-taught, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog.
When my boss retired his law practice and focused solely on his investment businesses, I began running his businesses from top to bottom, including keeping the books. I made it my business to learn whatever it took to be a valuable and necessary employee. And, guess what? I have not “topped out” yet and have absolutely no plans to retire in the foreseeable future. In fact, I’m just getting started!
No matter how many ridiculous “studies” have been done about employee efficiency, there will always be another one to contradict those findings. In other words, those dumbass studies are nothing more than unmitigated bullshit.
Perhaps you have never had the fortune of hiring truly dedicated, loyal and motivated employees, but that doesn’t mean we don’t exist. Then again, you’re such a charmer, maybe no one of quality is willing to put up with working for a schmuck like you for any length of time.
Yeah, you pissed me off, dude. Bad move.
Gerald, so your saying longevity is a thing of the past. Hmmm…seems only NMB thinks so. So take home cars are a thing of the past. Hmmm…seems only NMB thinks so. And the one that really caught my attention, the MLK holiday is now a benefit of the past. Hmmm..your on your own with that one, even NMB wishes to keep that as spaid holiday. So basicaly what i’m gathering from your thoughts is every other police department in dade county has got it all wrong and only NMB has gotten it right. Every thriving city (lets use our surronding cities, woud only be fair I think), North Miami, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, hahaha, even Opa Locka and Miami Gardens still give these beneits to their police, but NMB who is doing so well and has a great history of doing so well with taking this city to the next level and they have it right. Lol!!!! I have some land in the everglades I wanna sell you if you truly believe that one. Is that you Bruce??? I know your an expert at just about everything involving a profession (police work) your not in, but these comments really make you look like a jackass.
Green, I don’t know who Gerald is, but I can tell you with certainty that it’s not Bruce. He certainly is a piece of work, though.
Gerald,
To be honest, I hate having discussions of this nature with someone as irrational and on objective as you. You have a clearly defined point of view, that police officers make too much money, then you simply set about using whatever rationalization allows you to arrive at your predetermined conclusion.
For instance, you ask who still pays “longevity” these days? The question suggests that it is ludicrous to think that any employer would consider paying a bonus to an employee who has worked for them for many decades. For the record, I know many of my friends who work in the private sector who receive such a bonus from their employer.
Likewise, your suggestion that no employee can learn anything new or improve their skills after 10 years is, with all due respect, stupid sounding. Stupid, and arbitrary.
The truth of the matter is that over time police officers develop many skills beneficial to the performance of their duties. The birth of my son taught me patience. The death of my mother taught me empathy and compassion for others. Both of these events made me a much better police officer and neither happened within the first 10 years of my employment with the city.
In any event, it is clear that you think I make too much money and there is nothing I could possibly say to ever change your mind. So what is the point? We are free to disagree without being disagreeable. Right?
I’m still fuming that Gerald thinks an employee – any employee – is useless after 10 years of service. That’s one of the stupidest presumptions I’ve ever heard! After making a statement like that, he’s not even worth taking seriously. I’m gritting my teeth just thinking about it.
Mazel Tov, Gerald! You just got a starring roll in my new column, Study This! https://www.votersopinion.com/2013/10/22/hey-gerald-study-this/
Enjoy!
No unfilled positions? Whoever you are you certainly have no clue what your talking about so stop embarrassing yourself. Your in way over your head here. We have numerous unfilled positions and despite your supposed knowledge of government employment and hiring practices there are not hundreds of qualified applicants waiting to fill these positions. The number is much closer to zero than 100. As a matter of fact it’s closer to zero than 10. We’ve managed to hire a whopping 3 people in the past year and one of them has already been let go. So get your facts straight before making any further foolish remarks. On another note who here is receiving retirement pay and a salary? Nobody ok? Another foolish statement. Also what studies are you referring to? I’d really like to know. I could spend all day tearing your post a new one but with so many stupid remarks to choose from who has time?
That study was brought to you by the same folks who spent $3 million to teach shrimp how to use a treadmill. 🙂
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ejde45i/treadmills-for-shrimp-3-million/
For every moron who comes up with a useless study, there’s always another idiot who thinks it’s a good idea to fund it.
So, yeah, that’s how much faith I put in “studies.”
OMFG! Why are we even discussing this nonsense?