Can Belleville reduce its overtime costs?
By Jacqueline Lee, Belleville News-Democrat | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Employee salary and overtime information also shows the
City officials, however, caution against drawing conclusions that the city could use overtime money to hire more police officers.
Police Chief
Clay said a new police station, not more officers, will make the department more efficient.
But Clay and Eckert do say that hiring more dispatchers would reduce overtime in that category. The city spent
The next highest overtime spending is by the
About 20 percent of the
Groups such as
For this reason, police sergeants
Stafford, for instance, earned
Marshall earned
In comparison, Clay earned
The city's top 12 wages all go to police and fire employees, with one exception:
Eckert is the 27th highest paid out of 473 full and part-time employees, earning
The News-Democrat obtained the city's
How police OT works
Outside groups, such as schools, businesses and nonprofits, hire off-duty Belleville officers to provide safety at their events.
Officers bill their hours to these groups, which then send a check to the city.
For this off-duty work, outside groups reimburse the city
The rate covers the officer's salary at time and a half and also every cost associated with a working officer: health insurance, workers' compensation insurance, uniform reimbursement, gas and more.
The money funnels through the city because the police officers are in Belleville police uniform and squad cars. This is so the officers can continue acting as police officers in their full capacity and not as security guards.
It also gives the city more control over where officers can work off-duty. Belleville officers cannot work off-duty at bars or outside city limits, such as
Officers ranked above sergeant cannot work off-duty shifts unless there are no officers or sergeants available and get paid at a flat rate, according to union contract.
To prevent fatigue, officers are only allowed to work a maximum of 16 hours a day. An officer who typically works a 12-hour shift can only work four hours of off-duty work that day.
Aside from outside funding sources, the
--Overtime tied to police operations: About
Officers who work a holiday, testify in a trial or attend mandatory training are doing things beyond their regular duty and must be paid overtime.
"These categories will cost us no matter what ... even if we hire more officers," Clay said.
More officers might even increase this type of overtime, Clay said.
Clay includes in the category of necessary overtime the instances where an officer goes on a "late call" near the end of a shift.
If an officer responds to a crash or a murder near the end of a shift, the officer can't leave the scene if there is more work to do because the shift has ended, Clay said. There are instances where it makes sense for the officer to keep working -- to minimize contamination of a crime scene or losing evidence and leads. This results in overtime.
--Public events: About
The city provides the most police overtime,
--Special police details: The remaining
The city's busy shopping season in November and December is the highest cost in this category. It cost
Eckert said the city has good results with these field operations and extra police presence during the holidays.
"It has a high price tag but the city has a high price to pay, too, if you have a few instances in the community and people say, 'It's a bad community. Let's not shop there.'"
Can OT be reduced?
Finance Director
Eckert said the city could hire more street employees because the department was cut to 15 workers from 20.
But having more street employees doesn't mean a reduction in overtime because of the nature of the job, Eckert said.
The city always assesses whether it's possible to handle a situation without using overtime, but overtime isn't a priority in the face of an incident that poses a hazard to the public, Eckert said.
As outlined by the union contract, employees get time-and-a-half if they work a Saturday whenever there is a holiday on a Monday, and double the normal pay if they report to work on a Sunday, such as the case for several storms this winter.
Eckert attributes
City leaders acknowledge the city can reduce the
Overtime for St. Clair County's
Belleville Capt.
After sergeants Stafford and Marshall, the employee with the most overtime is police dispatcher
There are two dispatchers working at any given time to staff the center around the clock.
Ideally, there would be three dispatchers and the duties would be a bit different, with one being in a supervisory role, Sax said.
But there's another problem: The size of the existing telecommunications center in the
"We don't have a way of putting another person in there, physically," Sax said.
Eckert said the city likely will wait to hire a new dispatcher until after the
Are hires in the budget?
Eckert and Maitret said Friday the city will consider hiring a new police officer and moving an officer to the
A new hire would bring the
Still, Eckert said, based on what Chief Clay needs, the city's priority isn't hiring more officers right now -- it's a new police station.
Clay said it's worth noting that, from a management perspective, in order to put one more officer on patrol means, the city needs six employees to fill that 24-hour position.
City officials announced in February the
A new facility will free up manpower in a way that will make it seem like the city has more officers on patrol, officials said.
The layout of the existing station at
The new building will solve this problem, freeing the shift commander to patrol.
Eckert believes a new station with the space to have training will mean that officers can stay in town for some seminars, cutting down on travel costs.
Maitret said the decision to hire three community resource officers for
Maitret said the city needs to hold off hiring officers until it's clear what the actual costs are of remodeling the new police station and how other sources of money shape up later this year.
Some councilmen, such as
Last year, in deciding whether to extend the 0.25 percent sales tax increase, city leaders discussed using the estimated
Before the council voted to extend the tax increase, some aldermen tried to amend the proposal to require that the revenue from the extension go directly to hiring officers. The council majority voted down the effort by Hayden,
City leaders said then that the hires might be possible with revenue from the tax extension and if the city gets a federal
The city since learned it did not get another COPS grant and, while money from a previous COPS grant ends this year.
The city hired four officers in
Eckert said some aldermen also forget that the council passed several new initiatives since talks of the 0.25 percent sales tax increase extension.
This includes getting a new Freedom of Information Act requests management system, hiring a new GIS coordinator in the
Contact reporter
___
(c)2014 the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.)
Visit the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.) at www.bnd.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Wordcount: | 1984 |
Cheap Full Coverage Auto Insurance in Florida Now Quoted at Insurer Portal Online
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News