The Okeechobee County Sheriff is asking for $30 million this year which would be a 5.4 percent increase.
Sheriff Noel Stephen also wants to give a five percent raise to his employees.
Stephen said calls for service continue to rise but arrests have been dropping.
“We average on law enforcement 86 calls per day and 3.5 calls per hour.”
He said a major expense comes from having to protect records from constant cyber attacks from foreign countries.
Stephen said he continues to lose deputies to other agencies due to salaries, especially beginning salaries.
He said that results in a lot of staff turnover and inexperienced deputies on patrol.
“Out of our frontline 36 taking calls on the road and 36 in the jail, 55 percent of those are less than two year employees, 13 of them on the road, are less than six months.”
The Okeechobee School Board upheld a recommendation to terminate school bus aide Rose Randazzo after a lengthy hearing this month.
She was accused of violating board policy by not fully inspecting the bus she rode for special needs children.
A 10-year-old child was left on the bus in May, 2023.
The bus driver assigned, resigned the job after the incident.
A similar incident resulted in the same punishment with another bus aide and bus driver last year.
Randazzo’s attorney Mark Walkinski argued the child never left the bus nor did the driver and was never without supervision and missed about two hours of construction.
Randazzo said she had severe knee pain that day but still came to work because she claimed the district has very few bus aides.
She also presented character witnesses who said she saved a child’s life when a car passed a stopped school bus illegally.
The district said the violation of policy of not checking this bus was so severe that termination is warranted.
School Board Chairwoman Jill Holcomb said a video of the bus ride that morning appeared to show Randazzo constantly on her cell phone and not paying attention to the students, some who were walking the aisles of the bus while it was moving.
The City of Okeechobee Technical Review Committee recommended denial for petitions to abandon several rights of way for the Okeechobee Estates Trailer Park putting a renovation and improvement of the park in jeopardy.
The park is located on SE 6th Avenue along Taylor Creek and was developed before land use and zoning laws were put into place.
The new owner Tristan Thomas wants to improve the park. His plan is to remove the older units and replace them over time with new units.
The next step for the project is the city planning board.
The village of Indiantown hired a consultant to look at the salaries they offer employees.
The consultant found that Indiantown doesn’t pay enough.
They suggested a 50 percent pay hike.
The village manager countered with a 25 percent pay hike recommendation this year.
Mayor Carmine DiPaolo said he sees an expansion of village government and services coming. He supported the 25 percent pay hike.
The additional salary will cost the village between $88,000 and $100,000 per year.