Survey: Mina nod should be pulled
About a month before the Orange County sheriff primary election, hundreds of deputies said they did not support their incumbent Sheriff John Mina, with many also expressing widespread morale issues at the agency, according to results from a recent union survey.
More than 500 deputies, or almost 80 percent of respondents, said that the union should withdraw its endorsement for Mina, who is running for reelection after serving a two-year partial term, according to the survey results released Wednesday by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93, which represents Orange County deputy sheriffs.
The union had pledged its support of Mina months ago prior to the upcoming primary, which is likely to determine the county’s next sheriff because all eligible candidates have filed as Democrats besides two write-in candidates. But FOP President Jeff Stinson wrote in the survey results that the union posed the question about endorsing Mina to deputies to “assess the level of dissatisfaction with our previously given endorsement.”
He said that after this question on the survey, deputies were able to add commentary, where “an overwhelming majority of responses centered about a lack of support from Sheriff Mina in the public for our deputies.”
The union did not provide those comments to the Sentinel.
The 16-question online survey was emailed last week to more than 1,000 union members, all sworn deputies at the Orange County Sheriff ’s Office, and 674 completed the survey, FOP officials said. The Sheriff’s Office employs about 2,500 employees, about 800 of whom are civilians.
Almost 75% of deputies who responded said they thought overall morale at OCSO was “low” or “very low”, and about the same number felt support from their senior management at the agency was similarly low.
The OCSO survey results come just days after the Orlando Police Department’s union released a similar survey to the Sentinel, also finding low morale in the city’s police force and a lack of confidence in its leadership.
Both surveys follow nationwide and local protests about police brutality and excessive force of Black residents, calling for systemic changes to law enforcement agencies — which both Mina and Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon have responded to by making some changes at their agencies.