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Pinellas Sheriff To Lay Off 25 Deputies

News Channel 8 photo by TODD DAVIS

Sheriff Coats speaks at a news conference on this latest development at 2:30 p.m., today, at the Sheriff's Administration Building.

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 10, 2008

Updated: 07/10/2008 05:31 pm

LARGO - Twenty-five Pinellas sheriff's deputies are to lose their jobs as of Aug. 8, but all they have to do to land a job elsewhere is look across Tampa Bay.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is interested in taking them on.

For weeks, Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats, at the request of the Pinellas County Commission, has had to wrestle with slashing his budget by 10 percent.

The 25 that he announced today would be laid off brings the total number of deputies pushed out the door to 61, he said. Thirty-six of them are detention deputies at the Pinellas County Jail; the other 25 are either deputies who patrol Pinellas neighborhoods or maintain security at Pinellas courthouses.

"It's not a good position for this county to be in as it regards public safety," Coats said today.

When Coats recently submitted his roughly $260 million budget to the commission, $25.7 million had been slashed, said chief deputy Bob Gualtieri. Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee had to cut his budget, too, but only by $4 million, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

But Gee has the exact opposite problem Coats has. While Coats winces at having to let these new hires go, Gee has 108 openings, Carter said. One problem has been Gee has had a difficult time finding qualified candidates.

The Hillsborough sheriff's office has 1,357 positions for sworn personnel, Carter said. The Pinellas Sheriff's Office has 1,862 sworn positions, said Pinellas sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner.

"They're willing to hire 25 we just laid off," Coats said.

Coats said no other sheriff's office in the state has been told to slash its budget by as much as 10 percent. The county commission asked all departments to cut their budgets by that percentage, but Coats believes his agency's mission, which is public safety, should have given it higher priority than some of the other departments, which includes parks.

"It's unprecedented for our agency," he said.

With the 61 layoffs, and a restructuring that resulted in the elimination of 275 positions, Coats has had to do away with a bevy of programs – such as those preventing teens from running away from home, the community policing program and a special DUI squad that last year arrested 900 drivers.

In addition, Gualtieri said, three free-standing facilities at the jail have been closed, with a reduction in the number of beds by 400.

Coats expects the reductions to affect his agency's ability to prevent crime, which in turn could lead to an upswing in crime.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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