President's Message
April 2009
Hello, hope you're all doing good.
First let me thank all of you who attended the January training session in Jacksonville. We had approximately 65 in attendance which was low compared to previous meetings. We had been averaging between 90 and 100 for the last couple years. It appears that these economic times are now affecting our association’s attendance. With that in mind, please reach out to fellow members and extend an offer to share a ride or hotel room. My thanks to Sergeant Ronnie Booker and Detectives Dave Koivisto, Karen Dukes, David Scott, Mike Gajewski, and Robert Newell in Jacksonville for a job well done on hosting the January meeting.
As most of you know, we had our elections in Jacksonville. I would first like to thank our out going directors Julie Comer and Chip Pakulis for their commitment to FATIU as directors. Thank you both. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome back Todd Blair as the Vice President and Dave Dempsey & John Lathrop as Directors. With the new changes that increased the number of directors from four to six, I’m also taking pleasure in introducing our new directors, Cheryl Mathews, Mark Pergola, Walter Robinson, and Darrell Russell.
At the Jacksonville meeting, we also presented our awards. The Karen Reyes award went to quality review specialists Sheryl Bennie and Tanya Nixon from the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s office. The Gordon Schaefer award went to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and a President’s award went to our new director, Cheryl Mathews. Congratulations to all of the award recipients and thanks for a job well done.
In these hard economic times, we all have to be aware of cuts that may be proposed that might affect our members directly as well as the auto theft problem or the safety of the citizens of the state. One example was recently brought to our attention. It was a proposal made to the legislature to eliminate the DMV regional offices or combine them with driver license offices. This would have created a giant void in services provided by DHSMV such as the rebuilt procedure, the ASPT procedure, the VIN verifications service and dealer complaints just to mention a few. Unsafe vehicles or vehicles rebuilt with stolen parts would have found there way onto the streets and the auto theft rate would likely rise as a result. Fortunately for everyone, the proposal was immediately confronted and I have since been told that it was pulled from consideration by legislature.
In closing, I would like to remind you all of our next meeting in Palm Beach County in May. We have scheduled training to address the current trend of stealing vehicles by committing a financial crime or some type of fraudulent title transfer that eliminates the lien or lease on the vehicle. I look forward to a good turnout and hope to see you in Palm Beach County.
Les Cravens