New pay, benefits plan for county lifeguards fails

WEST PALM BEACH — A long swim by Palm Beach Count y ocean rescue lifeguards hit a sea wall, again, on Tuesday.

The Palm Beach County Commission failed, by a 3-3 vote, to approve a sweeping agreement reached in November, and ratified by lifeguards, that would provide several employee benefits changes that lifeguards have sought for years. The big gest was that the county would have agreed to approve all applications by lifeguards to the state for ”special risk” status, which would nearly double the amount of their Florida Retirement System pensions and would allow them to retire earlier.

The circumstances of Tuesday’s County Commission vote left lifeguards frustrated but hopeful they still can still prevail.

Motions die on a tie, and this tie came when Vice Mayor Melissa McKinlay left during the lunch break for another obligation and wasn’t there for the afternoon vote. She couldn’t be reached Tuesday on how she would have voted.

Mayor Paulette Burdick said the special-risk status support

The county will pay a Miami firm $1 million toward sinking the USS Clamagore off Juno Beach as an artificial reef.

promised by the county was the deal-breaker for her. She said she wants the Legislature to determine the status statewide. The proposed package also would have expressed support for state legislation.

The other two “no” votes, Hal Valeche and Steve Abrams, said after the meeting they did not want to discuss their vote because of the nature of the bargaining agreement and the fact that it might come for another vote.

Abrams had asked before the vote if the proposal could be modified to separate out the risk-status part but was told the commission could vote only up or down. Burdick said later she wished the same thing.

Abrams did say that the lifeguards “are certainly a key part of the success of our beaches” and deserve competitive pay.

C o mmi s s i o n e r s Ma r y L o u Berger, Mack Bernard and Dave