Overtime pay for Montgomery County employees jumped 10.5 percent over the summer compared with the previous three months, bringing the total amount the cash-strapped county has paid for extra hours worked to $30.1 million this year, county records show.
The county spent $11.2 million on overtime pay for its roughly 10,000 employees during the first quarter of fiscal 2010, up from $10.1 million the previous quarter, according to a recent report by the county’s data tracking system, CountyStat.
CountyStat Manager Chris Cihlar said the county’s shrinking work force explains part of the jump. The county trimmed 400 jobs from its payroll in the spring to help bridge a budget gap of more than $550 million.
Cihlar said the county has found that it’s “always cheaper” to pay someone more overtime than to hire a new position.
Overtime pay for the county’s fire department employees rose 24 percent during the summer, with members of the fire department earning an average of $3,049.10 in overtime pay, though some senior employees likely earned much more. Three firefighter captains made between $95,000 to $116,000 in overtime pay last fiscal year.
Cihlar said employees typically bring in more overtime pay during the summer because they have to cover for vacationing colleagues. But seasonal increases aside, Cihlar said the fire department and other public safety departments have done well reducing excess overtime hours from a year earlier.
“They’re getting to a point where they’re not going to be cutting it anymore,” he said.
County Executive Ike Leggett has made reducing overtime pay a priority after years of soaring costs.
A report by the county’s inspector general last year found that the fire department’s overtime compensation rose by 47.5 percent, from $11.9 million to $17.5 million, in a three-year period beginning in 2004.
The report added that the county’s overtime policies created an environment that was “vulnerable to abuse.”
Cihlar said his office is now focused more on other departments that have seen overtime spikes, like the Department of Transportation, which saw overtime use increase nearly 10 percent during fiscal 2009.
