Chicago taxpayers are “hemorrhaging” money, thanks to the “liberal” and “standardless” award of overtime pay to Chicago Fire Department brass that wiped out savings generated by mandatory furloughs, Inspector General Joe Ferguson has concluded.
In a preliminary report issued Tuesday, Ferguson concluded that straight overtime payments to the Fire Department’s 50 “exempt” employees skyrocketed — from $18,516 in 2008 to $311,180 in 2009 and $191,293 during the first three months of this year.
If straight overtime continues at the current pace, Fire Department brass will rack up $765,174 in straight overtime payments in 2010, a 245 percent increase over last year’s “inflated total.”
The surge coincided with — and undermined — the mandate that city employees take unpaid furlough days and unpaid city holidays to help erase a record budget shortfall.
Although the timing of the surge was fishy, Ferguson said he was “unable to ascertain” the reasons for the increase.
He noted that the possibilities include: a manpower shortage caused by retirements and an increase in the number of brass on medical leave; an “attempt to circumvent the unpaid furlough mandate;” contractual limits on the number of deputy district chiefs who can “act up” and replace absent superiors; a lack of promotions and an internal policy of never allowing deputy district chiefs to earn less than batallion chiefs.
Eighteen deputy district chiefs also racked up $117,590 in overtime payments while interviewing firefighters seeking promotion to lieutenant, known as oral boards.
No matter what the motive, one thing is certain, the preliminary report concludes:
“The city appears to be hemorrhaging funds due to the liberal and comparatively standardless award of this Chicago Fire Department exempt overtime pay,” Ferguson wrote.
“Moreover, there is a direct correlation between the 2009 spike in payment of overtime and the imposition of increased furlough days for exempt CFD employees.”
An unidentified employee of the city’s Office of Budget and Management even went so far as to tell Ferguson’s investigators that the city “lost money” on the Fire Department’s furlough program “because overtime payments exceeded the savings,” the report stated.
The preliminary report noted that a deputy district chief was allowed to retire in November, 2009 without taking any of his mandatory unpaid furlough days or unpaid holidays.
“Employees can circumvent the furlough and unpaid holiday requirements through this loophole. If this practice is occurring city-wide, it could result in a significant amount of anticipated salary savings not being realized,” the reports states, recommending that the “loophole” be closed.
The Fire Department was also accused of paying “significant amounts” of time-and-a-half overtime to 19 exempt employees “in apparent contravention” of department policy that no such payments should be granted.
In a written response to the inspector general’s findings, newly-appointed Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff blamed “clerical errors” for the time-and-a-half overtime payments and the Fair Labor Standards Act for some of the rest.
But he blamed medical leaves for much of the surge.
There were ten deputy district chiefs “on lay-up” for 1,159 days last year, compared to five for 395 days in 2008, he said.
“The report…links the ‘skyrocketed’ overtime to the same year as the city’s cost-saving measures, but ignores the impact of the manpower shortages,” Hoff wrote. |
