Overtime Rising in Fire, Sheriff Departments

Ventura County’s fire and sheriff’s departments doled out nearly $21 million in overtime pay during the last fiscal year, with each department showing significant increases over the past five years, a Times analysis has found.

Officials from each department defended the expenditures, arguing it’s cheaper to spend money on overtime rather than hire new employees. But some county supervisors and taxpayer advocates say the spending is out of control and needs to be examined for abuses.

“The numbers are just way out of line.” Supervisor John Flynn said. “When we have departments that can’t keep parks open, there’s not enough code enforcement officers, when we can’t run animal control the way we should, when we don’t have enough people to check the cleanliness of restaurants, then there are too many inequities. My God, think what we could do with [$21 million].”

Flynn and Supervisor Frank Schillo said the increasing overtime expenditures should be a major topic of discussion among board members. Both say they plan to further study the numbers.

Overtime pay for the sheriff’s and fire departments actually dipped slightly between 1992 and 1996, following a highly critical audit of the Fire Department’s operations.

But overtime in both departments has spiraled upward every year since. The Sheriff’s Department posted the biggest spike, with overtime pay jumping 62%, from $7.3 million to $11.7 million, between the 1995-96 fiscal year and 1999-00. The fiscal year runs from June 30 to July 1.

In the last fiscal period, the Fire Department’s overtime costs consumed nearly 14%--or $9.2 million--of its $66.3-million budget. By comparison, the Sheriff’s Department’s overtime accounted for about 9%--or $11.7 million--of its $135.9-million budget.

Sheriff Bob Brooks said he isn’t concerned about the hefty overtime bills, saying the extra payouts are the cost of policing a large county. The Sheriff’s Department, which includes 750 sworn officers, patrols all unincorporated areas and the cities of Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai and Thousand Oaks.

“They don’t strike me as unusually large,” Brooks said of the overtime figures. “I think you’ll find it’s the same with firefighters and deputies everywhere.”

The top base pay for a sheriff’s deputy is $54,342. Since January, however, overtime windfalls have allowed 220 sworn personnel to each bring home at least $20,000 in additional pay, with 20 of those grossing over $100,000, according to data from the county auditor’s office. The figures cover the period through Nov. 17.

One deputy with a base salary of $47,012 boosted his gross pay by 2 1/2 times, earning $117,781 during this same period. Seven others more than doubled their pay, including a sergeant whose annual paycheck so far has jumped from $61,578 to $123,772.

The gross pay numbers include some cash paid for benefits, such as vacation buyouts, educational incentives and bilingual pay, car allowances and longevity bonuses. But the bulk of the money is for overtime.

Meanwhile, county firefighters took equal advantage of overtime benefits, with the department more than doubling payouts over the past five fiscal years, jumping from $4.9 million to $9.2 million.

The top base pay for a firefighter is $43,728. Since January, 240 firefighters have collected more than $20,000 in overtime pay, with nine firefighters doubling their pay, according to county reports. Of those, 38 have earned more than $100,000 with overtime.

A fire engineer with an annual salary of $44,573 topped the overtime list for his department, earning $107,809 since January, a 142% overall increase. Another fire captain has so far pushed his $58,967 base pay to $130,742.

And 12 fire officials have grossed more than Fire Chief Bob Roper’s $114,165 base salary, with one assistant chief landing as the department’s top earner at $155,212.

Assistant Fire Chief Darrell Ralston said, “The big spike does seem a little unusual.” But he added some of the overtime hours were brought on by employees in the 530-member department assisting in large fire disasters over the past year in surrounding states, including Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, where a record number of fires blazed. That money, he said, is later reimbursed. Those reimbursement figures were not immediately available.

Ralston said individuals carrying the largest overtime payouts are employees who consistently volunteer for it and are willing to take on the extra work.

“There are people that are willing to work five to six extra days a month,” Ralston said. “Add that up over a year, and it’s about 60 extra work days. But they are the ones that are away from their families too.”

In the Sheriff’s Department, Brooks said several factors have contributed to spiraling overtime costs, including an agreement to eliminate 100 vacant positions during June’s budget negotiations.

“If you force a reduction in positions, you save money on the hiring side, but spend more on the overtime side,” Brooks said. “So this year drove overtime much higher than in past years.”

Adding to the problem, Brooks said, is an unusually high number of vacant deputy positions. About 90 slots are now unfilled, about 40 vacancies above what is considered acceptable.

A strong economy has spurred job opportunities in other, safer fields and has made recruiting for the Sheriff’s Department difficult, Brooks said. Law enforcement agencies across the state have reported a 40% to 60% drop in applications last year, Brooks said.

The shortage comes despite continued growth in the Sheriff’s Department, which opened a new jail in 1995 and more recently created a 13-person crime suppression unit. Those cities that contract with the department have also asked for more officers in recent years, Brooks said.

The Sheriff’s Department specifically sets aside money each year for overtime and uses that as an incentive for young deputies to sign on with Ventura County.

“If you look at $20,000 worth of overtime on top of a $34,000 base salary,” Brooks said, “that’s not a lot of money for Ventura County, especially for the kind of work they have to do. That’s the only way we can really retain people.”

But other criminal justice agencies, which wrestle with the same employee retention problem, do not pay overtime despite heavy workloads. For instance, the starting salary for a deputy district attorney is $40,014 and tops out at $80,782.

In recent years, numerous prosecutors have left the county for better-paying jobs elsewhere. Twenty-six prosecutors left the district attorney’s office between 1997 and 1999.

While acknowledging that some overtime is necessary, critics charge that county public safety agencies are too accepting of hefty payouts. Abuses, they say, are often overlooked.

“It certainly looks to me like it’s time for an internal audit of both departments,” said Jere Robings, former president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. “The departments’ heads have to show justification for all this overtime, because it looks to me like we have a problem.”

Robings said he is familiar with the argument that it’s cheaper for taxpayers to pay overtime instead of hiring more employees, who drive up payrolls through benefit and pension packages.

“But the overtime still has to be within reason,” Robins said. “And that again would show up in an audit. Let’s analyze all this time and see how much of it is really necessary.”

Robings cited the September 1993 audit of the Fire Department that criticized the department for its lax attitude toward overtime. In that year, $5.5 million of the department’s $37-million budget went toward overtime costs.

The report said “control and management of overtime are essential,” adding that their review showed several “opportunities for [Fire Department] management to aggressively pursue measures to further reduce overtime costs.”

Suggestions included closer monitoring of sick leave, which auditors believed was being manipulated to get the most out of overtime hours.

“In a sample of 25 line personnel,” the report said, “13, on at least one occasion, called in sick and worked overtime the following day.”

Schillo was cautious in his criticism of the continuing rise in overtime payouts, saying some of the increases are expected because of annual salary increases. The raises are necessary, Schillo said, to remain competitive for the best recruits. Still, he added, the numbers may be too large to be completely explained by pay hikes.

“I would feel more comfortable looking into this and getting some specific reasons why this is happening,” Schillo said. “If it can’t be explained by [salary increases], then what is explaining it?”

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Ventura County Overtime

Total dollars spent on overtime in the county Sheriff’s and Fire departments during the last five fiscal years. Totals are in the millions of dollars.

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95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 Sheriff 7.3 7.9 9.2 10.4 11.7 Fire 4.9 6.8 7.7 8.1 9.2

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Source: Ventura County auditor-controller’s Office

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Top Overtime Earners

The following is a survey of the top ten overtime earners in the county Sheriff’s and Fire departments so far this calendar year, running from Jan. 1 through Nov. 17. Employees are identified only by rank.

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Base Gross % Salary Income above base Deputy $34,471 $86,839 152% Deputy $47,012 $117,781 150% Deputy $47,012 $103,145 119% Deputy $34,997 $76,361 118% Sr. Deputy $51,821 $107,449 107% Deputy $47,012 $94,494 101% Sr, Deputy $50,665 $101,657 101% Sgt. $61,578 $123,772 101% Sgt. $61,032 $119,785 96% Sr. Deputy $51,821 $101,588 96% Fire Engineer. $44,573 $107,809 142% Fire Engineer $48,237 $113,315 134% Fire Engineer $50,733 $115,107 127% Fire Capt. $58,967 $130,742 122% Fire Capt. $55,601 $120,384 117% Fire Capt. $58,867 $127,262 116% Fire Capt. $58,867 $123,244 109% Fire Capt. $58,867 $123,244 109% Fire Engineer $50,733 $102,187 101% Fire Capt. $51,715 $99,658 93%

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Source: Ventura County auditor-controller’s office