NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on March 26, 2012, the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, received a petition for a permanent waiver of paragraph 11B-35.001(9)(b), F.A.C., from Richard K. Bartzer, Director, Florida Corrections Academy, School 66, on behalf of two Correctional Officers. Paragraph 11B-35.001(9)(b), F.A.C., requires officers to achieve a passing score of 80% or higher on Basic Recruit Training Courses. The petition supports the requested waiver by stating that the officers at issue achieved what the officers, instructors, and academy believed to be passing scores on one of their end-of-course examinations. An audit showed that the two officers had not actually passed one of the end-of-course examinations. The two recruits had already passed the State Officer Certification Examination and were employed as Correctional Officers when Petitioner brought the officers back and re-tested them. The two officers then passed the end-of-course examinations. The Petitioner states that the two officers should not be penalized because they relied upon the Petitioner’s scoring of their end-of-course examinations and had already passed the SOCE and were already employed in the discipline before the audit revealed that the two officers had not actually passed one of their end-of-course examinations. Petitioner states that the officers at issue will suffer a substantial hardship if their scores are not recognized because they will not receive the benefit of their employment for the time they graduated until they passed the re-take of the end-of-course examination. Petitioner further states that it would violate the principles of fairness to fail to recognize that the officers did successfully complete the requirements as they requirements were presented to them by the Petitioner and as the Petitioner understood them prior to the audit.
A copy of the Petition for Variance or Waiver may be obtained by contacting: Grace A. Jaye, Assistant General Counsel, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, P. O. Box 1489, Tallahassee, FL 32302 or by telephoning (850)410-7676.