West Central Florida PBA represents a 3 County area (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk) and 17 police agencies. There are a lot of politicians that represent our members in these three counties. The PBA gets its strength from politics. I can talk to a politician for 10 minutes on the phone, have lunch with him for an hour or spend 4 hours playing golf and getting to know him and telling him our needs as a Union. My job is to build a relationship with the politicians in this area for the betterment of the membership. So in answer to the golf question, yes I do play golf. It averages out to about once a month.
The PBA board members spend hundreds of hours of their own time doing things like contract research and negotiations, charity golf tournaments, giving deputies food and drinks at parades and many other issues. These guys are the people that stick their necks out for everyone else and pay a price for it with their careers. Twice a year the state PBA has conferences (January and December) to discuss current issues, politics, law changes and other issues. At these conferences it is customary to take the board members out for dinner one night. A small price to pay for their free labor spent throughout the year. This was done with the knowledge and permission of the charter president. I hope this clears things up a bit.
Mike Rouleau
