To the surprise of some city council members, overtime at City
Hall has decreased since furloughs went into effect, according to
city figures.
To the surprise of some city council members, overtime at City Hall has decreased since furloughs went into effect, according to city figures.
The city has paid about $435,000 in overtime since July 1, the start of the fiscal year – down from $637,657 last year, according to city figures. While council members worried earlier this summer that fewer employees would add to overtime costs, the recession has reduced the workload of most employees, city staff and council members said. At the same time, however, overtime has increased at the emergency call center due to employee illnesses, injuries and retirements. Similarly, much of the current savings might be temporary as many emergency workers take furlough days instead of vacation days, meaning they can later cash in on these unused vacation days.
Council members were scheduled to discuss the overtime issue Monday night and welcomed news of reduced costs, but they also acknowledged the numbers may be premature. The city paid $262,223 in overtime during the month of August – up $38,615 compared to 2008 – according to city figures. Finance officials point mostly to an over-worked communications center, which has routinely been two to three employees short for the past couple of months due to unanticipated medical reasons, training and resignations.
Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to cancel furloughs for nearly 900 California Highway Patrol dispatchers after hold times at some of the state’s call centers started lagging behind national standards. Gilroy response times have not decreased, Capt. Scot Smithee said, but that’s because seven full-time employees have been doing the work of 11. Thanks to a new hire and shifting a part-time employee to full time, the department could be up to 8.5 employees by Oct. 1.
“The only thing that happened when the furlough time was initiated was that more hours had to be covered. Several dispatchers have worked as many as 14 days in a row as well as working quite a few 12-, 14- and 16-hour shifts. The only way that the furlough system will work in the 911 Center and actually save money is if there is enough staff to be able to impose the furlough time,” Senior Dispatcher Jim Stephens wrote in an e-mail to the council earlier this month.
Capt. Smithee agreed, but council members are dealing with a $1.6 million deficit and have hesitated to dip into the city’s shrinking reserve fund to hire new employees. Plus, canceling furloughs for dispatchers or hiring more dispatchers could come off as unfair to other city employees, who have taken 10 percent pay cuts, Smithee said. The police department is avoiding overtime increases because officers are only allowed to take a furlough day if it does not trigger overtime, he said.
“If none of the dispatchers were out on leaves, then yeah, we could do furloughs in the communications center, but there are a lot of issues,” Smithee said.
As a result, Mayor Al Pinheiro and other council members said they wanted to proceed carefully.
“Certainly we are aware of what’s going on in the communications center, but unless there’s a direct push from (City Administrator Tom Haglund) and (Police Chief Denise Turner) that that’s something they really need to consider, I really don’t see this as a reason to stop furloughs,” Pinheiro said. “There’s a learning curve here, but the bottom line is the furloughs are needed at this point to continue to mitigate some of these costs, and other cities up and down this state are all singing the same songs.”
The future of the fire department also remains cloudy. Fire Chief Dale Foster was preparing overtime projections for Haglund Monday but would not provide numbers until he submitted a report.
“Do we have enough in our overtime budget to get through the rest of the year? That’s what we’ll be discussing,” Foster said.
During July and August, the department spent $254,348 on overtime, down from more than $440,000 during the same period a year ago, but the department chewed into its overtime budget by $12,000 in January when three firefighters were laid off and paid for unused vacation time.
This highlights another issue for the city – whether the city is actually reducing costs or delaying them. Firefighters are accruing more vacation time as they take furloughs in blocks similar to vacation requests, according to Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips. If firefighters later use these vacation days, managers will have to scramble to fill shifts. Alternatively, if firefighters do not use their vacation days, they can cash them out in a lump sum when they leave the department. The process is the same for police and emergency dispatchers.
Of the $3.1 million in savings the city council approved with the city’s five labor unions earlier this summer, furlough days account for about $2 million. The rest comes from salary and benefit reductions. Of that $2 million, police furlough days make up $527,000 and fire furlough days make up $257,000. The city did not have exact numbers for savings through emergency dispatchers furlough days, but dispatchers comprise about 10 percent of the city’s largest municipal union, which agreed to $775,000 in furloughs.
As for the postponed vacation days, council members and city staff said they would evaluate the situation later this year, but expected department heads to schedule true vacation days in the years to come without incurring overtime costs.
Councilman Peter Arellano said he would consider overtime and staffing issues after hearing from staff Monday night, but indicated furloughs should continue as long as residents remain safe.
“We did all these changes to save money and close the budget gap, but you can’t plan for people getting sick, injured or leaving, and as long as we’re not compromising the people’s safety, we should continue,” Arellano said. “But nothing’s off the table.”
Overtime costs
Police*
January – August 2008: $586,408
January – August 2009: $412,468
Fire
January – August 2008: $822,492
January – August 2009: $656,843
City Hall
January – August 2008: $50,922
January – August 2009: $31,787
Average number of employees collecting OT per month
January – August 2008: 117
January – August 2009: 96
Note: Layoffs were imposed in January 2009 and furloughs started in July 2009
*Includes 911 dispatchers who, unlike other employees, are collecting more overtime compared to last year
Source: City of Gilroy Finance Department
