GILROY
– Gilroy firefighters will log the fewest overtime hours this
fiscal year since the department began several major expansion
projects in 2000.
GILROY – Gilroy firefighters will log the fewest overtime hours this fiscal year since the department began several major expansion projects in 2000.
This will also be the first year the Gilroy Fire Department stays within its $300,000 overtime budget since 2000.
“It’s nice to finally be under budget,” said GFD Chief Jeff Clet, who was hired in February 2002. “But aside from the money, this also means healthier and more rested firefighters.”
Due in large part to a controversial arbitration ruling in 2000 that forced the city to increase the number of firefighters per engine from three to four, along with the implementation of its recently adopted paramedic program, the GFD had been forced to pay large amounts of overtime the past few years to administer the changes.
In the fiscal year 2000-01, the GFD paid $450,000 in overtime – $150,000 more than budgeted, and last fiscal year the amount of overtime climbed to $200,000 over budget. The majority of the combined $350,000 excess in overtime during those two years was siphoned from the general fund reserves, which have recently taken a strong hit due to the economic downturn.
So far this fiscal year, which ends June 30, the department has spent $222,000 of its $300,000 overtime budget. If that figure stays on pace, as expected, the GFD will remain within its overtime budget this year.
The annual budget for the fire department is currently $6.9 million.
“Overtime is something that every fire department has to deal with,” said Geoff Cady, the GFD’s recently hired fire-EMS analyst whose data collections have helped the city more accurately predict the amount of overtime and personnel hours expected. “We can never leave an empty seat on a fire engine, so that means every time one guy is out somebody else is usually working overtime.”
And that’s the cycle the department is trying to break: Firefighters working more than their average 56 hours per week to fill in for sick, hurt or vacationing firefighters, and consequently exhausting themselves to the point where they become sick themselves.
As a solution to that problem, the department is beginning to rely more heavily on relief firefighters – full-time firefighters who are not part of the city’s six current four-man engine crews, but who regularly fill in for the normal crew members during paid-training or any type of leave.
The GFD currently has six relief firefighters – more than ever before – and because the department has been able to staff enough relief fighters this year to cover its six shifts, it has saved a large amount of money in overtime, Cady said.
“(Health) benefits for relief firefighters cost 43 percent of salary,” Cady said, “and overtime costs 50 percent of salary, so you can see the savings right there. Not to mention this ensures the city is being served by rested firefighters.”
The average city firefighter will earn $9,700 in overtime this year. The salaries for the 31 members of the GFD eligible for overtime vary between $56,000 and $86,000.
In 2001, one city firefighter earned $7,000 in overtime pay during the month of January alone.
“Relief (firefighters) are essential to stabilize the amount of overtime,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “Now that we are finally stabilized, we should have a much easier time predicting how much relief we need and securing it.”
That’s why both the city and the fire department are hoping to ensure enough relief firefighters will be maintained to keep overtime in check, but of course some things can’t be predicted – things like September’s devastating Croy Fire.
GFD firefighters logged 500 hours of overtime helping fight the blaze that burned thousands of unincorporated acres west of Morgan Hill. The GFD responded to the fire as part of its mutual response agreement with other city fire departments, county and state fire agencies. Although Gilroy will be reimbursed by the California Office of Emergency Services for the majority of the hours they spent fighting the fire, the overtime paid toward travel time and the firefighters who backfilled the city’s stations will not be recovered, Clet said.
Vacation leave, sick leave, injury leave and training accounted for most of the 5,709 overtime hours Gilroy firefighters have logged to date this fiscal year.
And while realities such as the yearly minimum of 240 paid training hours required for Gilroy firefighters will maintain a steady stream of overtime through the GFD, Clet is hoping his department’s overtime budget can remain in the black in future years.
“There will always be overtime because we have to deal with the unexpected,” Clet said. “But with the implementation of our new tracking systems, I don’t think we will ever be back where we were the last few years.”
