Revising overtime policies with innovative techniques used in other jurisdictions could save the District more than $8 million a year, according to a new inspector general’s report.
On the heels of a recent audit that found the city’s school system faces serious issues with its overtime system, Inspector General Charles Willoughby now says, “Internal control weaknesses may exist in other District agencies.” Overtime payments citywide have jumped the past two years, from $41.3 million in fiscal 2003 to $48 million in 2004 and $55.3 million in 2005.
“With a growing trend in overtime payments for the last three fiscal years, we recommend that District agency officials perform assessments of their agency’s overtime use to determine if the conditions noted in our recent audit extend to their operations and if so, to take preemptive action to better manage and control overtime costs,” Willoughby wrote in the new report, dated Monday.
Conservatively, Willoughby continued, the District can reduce overtime costs up to 15 percent, or between $5.5 million and $8.2 million, simply by enacting successful programs used in other jurisdictions and in the private sector.
For example, Willoughby wrote, New Jersey reduced overtime by quickly filling vacant positions. In Fairfax, school bus drivers’ schedules were adjusted, allowing for a zero overtime policy.
In Minneapolis, a software change allowed for better overtime tracking and scheduling.
In 2004, Ward 3 Council member Kathy Patterson tried to limit overtime for certain employees so that basic pay and overtime pay did not exceed 150 percent of their annual salary. The measure never got a vote.
In the Metropolitan Police Department, which pays the most overtime of any city agency, a special study attached to last year’s budget found the police consistently ranked among the highest overtime-paying departments in the country, including Philadelphia and Chicago.
