Rochester cuts $3 million in police overtime through tactical shift
Rochester police cut overtime spending by more than one-third, or $2.5 million, last year — the first significant decline in expenses that had nearly tripled over the past decade.
Coupled with a decline in payouts for compensatory time, the Rochester Police Department shaved $3 million from its payroll.
Mayor Robert Duffy targeted police overtime shortly after taking office, and his administration has struggled to control expenses. As the city’s police chief, Duffy saw those costs rise during his tenure and then explode when he became mayor, because his administration used overtime to sustain stepped-up patrols as part of a Zero Tolerance crime initiative.
In 2008, police officers billed a record $9.6 million in overtime and paid comp time, making the decline to last year’s $6.5 million pronounced. The department finished last year with four fewer officers than in 2008.
City police can take overtime in pay or they can bank the hours as comp time, which then can be taken as days off or cashed in later or at retirement. Hours become a city expense when they are redeemed and are paid at the employee’s current pay rate, not the rate of pay when the hours were accrued.
For perspective on the dramatic rise and fall in police overtime, consider:
“It’s an ongoing process,” said George Markert, executive deputy chief for the Police Department. “There are still some gains to be made.”
Police officers make up the bulk of the city’s largest department, which has about 896 budgeted officers and civilian employees. The department accounted for more than one-third of the 263,000 overtime hours logged across city government last year.
For years, some argued it was cheaper to pay police overtime than increase Police Department staffing. That claim has proven true under the Duffy administration.
Since Duffy took office in January 2006, the city has gone from 726 police officers to 768. So despite the cuts in overtime, the additional officers and negotiated raises have swelled the payroll by a net $8.5 million during his tenure, to a total of $58 million last year.
City officials say the increased staffing was not done solely to combat overtime. Rather, it was part of the mayor’s effort to have a greater police presence and improve public safety. Nevertheless, Duffy expected overtime to be reined in as well.
The city claims success on both fronts. But in both areas, the union says the city has failed, driving up fixed costs in salaries and then, to cut overtime, pulling needed resources from high-crime neighborhoods for bar detail and special events.
Budget impact
The city has cut overtime spending across the board, finishing last year at less than $10 million across city government for the first time since 2002-03. Including comp time, the citywide bill totaled $12.5 million. When the city calculates spending and overtime budgets, it does so based on its fiscal year, which begins July 1 and runs through June 30. This Democrat and Chronicle analysis was based on calendar year totals, since those coincide with how employees report their wages.
Overtime spending represents less than 3 percent of the city’s $450 million budget. The city has a budgeted full-time work force of 2,840.
In the current budget year, the city faced a $35 million budget gap, which Duffy closed in part by reducing overtime across all city departments by $900,000. In 2010-11, the city is facing a $44 million gap, but budget director Bill Ansbrow said the city likely cannot count on similar, dramatic reductions in overtime again.
“(Police Chief David Moore) and his command staff did a good job reducing overtime,” Ansbrow said, noting that police were relied upon for much of this year’s overtime reduction. “Future overtime will depend on our ability to maintain the high (police) staffing levels that we have achieved during Mayor Duffy’s administration.”
Duffy has pledged to reduce police overtime spending by 60 percent this budget year compared with 2007-08. That year, police overtime cost the city $8.8 million, largely due to Zero Tolerance. This budget year, Duffy has projected $3.5 million. Moore said he expects the cost to be closer to $4 million.
A nearly 9 percent drop in violent crime, better coordination of officers on overtime assignments, and an increasingly sophisticated crime analysis center all played a part in reducing expenses, police said.
And with the improved staffing levels, police are using scheduled on-duty officers at what typically have been overtime assignments.
“We’ve really looked at overtime situations and who best to fill those,” Markert said, noting that overtime has been all but eliminated from bar detail in the busy East End district. “(But) I have to balance the current crime trends against the entertainment needs.”
The union responds
The city’s strategy, union president Mike Mazzeo said, has been to assign more and younger officers — and thus, those with lower salaries — to the tactical unit under the guise of being more aggressive in policing troubled neighborhoods.
The unit is unique in that supervisors can change officer shifts how and when they want, instead of having to negotiate or pay overtime for shift changes, Mazzeo said. But in addition to policing high-crime areas, those officers now are being sent to special events, standing posts and foot patrols downtown, giving the illusion of a downtown unit, he said.
“They are taking resources away that should be deployed in our higher-crime areas,” Mazzeo said. “I understand budgetary issues and the climate of our economy, so let’s negotiate.
“(But) they don’t want to have a labor relationship in which they negotiate. They turn around and unilaterally make changes, and we have to grieve it, then they want to blame the arbitrators. It’s always somebody.”
Moore said the city’s neighborhoods are not suffering as a result of using tactical and sector officers. “If we need those officers in certain communities, that is where they are going to be,” he said.
Tops in city overtime
A look at who is working overtime shows the ranks still dominated by officers at or nearing retirement eligibility. The state calculates pension based on an average of total wages received in the final three years of employment.
Unlike past years, the city employee who collected the highest total wage in 2009 was not a police officer. That distinction went to a 911 dispatcher — paid $137,821 in total wages, including $88,092 in overtime.
The mayor’s salary is $127,694.
As for why a 911 dispatcher received so much overtime, John Merklinger, the city’s emergency communications director, said his department was hit with retirements, resignations, terminations and long-term illness. The dispatcher is a 25-year veteran and versatile enough to handle different responsibilities. And he signed up for a lot of overtime — sometimes 16-hour days, seven days a week.
“They can pretty much sign up for all they want,” Merklinger said, though the need for overtime has gradually been reduced.
The department tries to enforce a maximum 16-hour day and at least one day off a week, but Craig Johnson, deputy director, said there is no legal requirement to do so. The city’s law department said the department could limit this employee’s hours only if job performance suffered, Johnson said, but managers have seen no problems or received any complaints about this worker’s performance.
The 911 center, with 170 budgeted full-time positions, logged 38,849 overtime hours last year, third most citywide behind police and environmental services.
Environmental services is the city’s public works department and includes refuse and recycling; streets, sidewalks and infrastructure; water supply; and snow removal. Most of this department’s overtime comes from salting and snowplowing.
BDSHARP@DemocratandChronicle.com
What’s at stake
The cost of running the Police Department and use of taxpayer dollars.
Wage disparity
The starting base salary for a police officer was $34,977 in 2009, with everyone up to and including captains eligible for overtime.
By the end of 2009, overtime helped four officers earn more than Police Chief David Moore, whose salary totaled $120,510, records show. Fourteen officers were paid more than the chief in 2008.
Mayor Robert Duffy has raised concern that the wage disparity is a disincentive for officers to advance into department management positions.
How it works
