Officials: Overtime pay is justified by services

Newport Beach city workers racked up more than $6.5 million in overtime pay last year, with some employees earning as much as $80,000 in overtime pay, according to records obtained by the Daily Pilot, but city officials claim there are no indications of employee abuse.

Most of the overtime was logged by the city’s emergency responders, such as firefighters, police and utilities workers, who need to be on call, city officials contend.

“I’m not interested as to who is working the overtime — I’m more interested in knowing that the overtime is justified,” said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau.

The city recently instituted a partial hiring freeze and trimmed about $2 million from the current budget to compensate for an estimated $3.5-million shortfall in sales tax revenues this year.

One place Newport Beach isn’t looking to cut back on is employee overtime pay, Bludau said.

“There’s no way we can cut back on overtime — it’s just the cost of providing services to the community,” Bludau said. “We’re going to look at cutting back wherever it makes sense, but not where it reduces safety or services to our residents.”

Fire and police department employees logged the most overtime pay in 2008, records show.

The Newport Beach City Council recently examined the Fire Department’s overtime pay after a city report showed firefighters were earning large amounts of overtime pay.

Firefighters rack up large amounts of overtime in part because fire stations need to be constantly manned with at least 39 people, Fire Chief Steve Lewis said. The firefighters also have to participate in mandatory training that accounts for some of the overtime pay, he said.

“It’s a 365-day-a-year business,” Lewis told the council earlier this week. “I’m faced with making sure there are 39 personnel at our stations every day.”

One Newport Beach fire engineer clocked more than 1,933 hours of overtime last year, and made $80,245.72 in overtime pay alone, city records show.

Another firefighter logged 2,323 hours of overtime and earned $61,336.58 in 2008.

“I think what happens is you see the numbers and the firemen are making these huge salaries, but they’re putting in a lot of hours to do that,” Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich said.

“We provide the highest quality of services at the most cost-effective rate.”

Some of the overtime pay for the Newport Beach Police Department doesn’t come out of the city’s coffers.

The department ran up $170,000 in overtime pay for DUI enforcement last year, but money to pay police officers came from a state grant from the Office of Traffic Safety, Newport Beach Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Police department overtime for large special events, such as the Susan G. Komen for the Cure race, held each year in Newport Beach, also isn’t paid by the city.

Event organizers pay for the extra police presence, Sailor said.

One Newport Beach Police Department employee, a city jail supervisor, logged more than 843 hours of overtime in 2008 and collected $53,073.92 in overtime pay, according to city records.

The city jail, which has nine full-time employees, had two employees out of commission due to injury last year, and the supervisor had to cover extra shifts, accounting for the overtime pay, Sailor said.

Another Newport Beach police officer racked up 710 overtime hours and earned $43,519.21 in overtime pay in 2008, records show.

A review of employee compensation records also show dozens more Police Department employees made between $10,000 and $30,000 in overtime pay alone last year.

“We believe most of the [overtime] is essential, but we are looking at scheduling to adjust shifts and things of that nature,” Sailor said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Newport Beach city employee compensation in 2008

Base pay for all city employees: About $62.8 million

Benefits: About $26.7 million

Overtime hours: 146,999.76

Overtime pay: About $6.5 million

Premium pay (includes education retention, leadership and certification pay): About $4 million

Other compensation (includes retroactive pay, leave buyouts, disability, etc.: About $1.3 million

Total compensation for all workers: About $101.4 million

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].