The Maryland juvenile services department said it is already beginning to make progress in reducing the $5.9 million it spent on overtime last year, primarily at its detention facilities.
The department?s new secretary, Donald DeVore, “made it a priority” to reduce overtime, said Beth Blauer, the agency?s public information officer.
As part of a mandate to reduce the state budget by $200 million, Gov. Martin O?Malley has made cutting overtime use a focus of his new StateStat program. The state paid $125 million in overtime last year, and almost half of it came from four departments: corrections, health, juvenile services and state police. The Examiner filed a Maryland Public Information Act request Tuesday seeking a detailed account of the overtime paid by the state.
“This is not unusual” for agencies that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Simon Powell, a legislative budget analyst who scrutinizes the juvenile services and health departments. “The departments that have 24/7 responsibilities ? just can?t leave shifts uncovered” on a psychiatric ward or a detention facility, for example.
Juvenile services had to use overtime because they didn?t have enough people to maintain appropriate staff levels, Blauer and Powell said. Blauer said the agency has begun reduce its overtime use by filling long-standing vacancies, partly by raising the salaries for “direct care staff.” That?s about 1,400 employees who typically make $24,000 to $30,000 a year, Blauer said.
Much of the overtime use (68 percent) was occurring at just three facilities that “were not designed to handle juvenile offenders,” she said ? the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, the Charles Hickey School in Parkville and the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George?s County, which house about 300 juveniles. “We?ve been running lower than capacity,” Blauer said.
“Now we have less than a 3 percent vacancy rate,” she said. In the new budget, the department also gained new positions, including 100 more to reopen the Victor Cullen treatment center in Frederick County.
“They are now hiring more successfully,” Powell said. “We?re giving raises geared to that class of employee.” Powell said the department has also streamlined its hiring process, which used to take several months for background and drug checks. Now that?s down to a month.
“We?ve created an overtime management committee,” Blauer said, and bolstered its management approval procedures. The department has also “improved our scheduling to anticipate absences and leaves.”
The department also is conducting audits of employees getting the most overtime to find out why that is occurring.
