Report: Wrongly paid Chicago Fire Dept. OT wiped out furlough savings

Overtime, holiday premium payments or both were awarded to 55 so-called exempt employees in 2010

June 23, 2011 05:04 AM

By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times

CHICAGO — Chicago Fire Department brass got more than $335,000 in overtime they were not eligible for over the last two years — wiping out the benefits from a furlough plan that was supposed to save money, the inspector general has concluded.

Updating a preliminary report issued last summer, Inspector General Joe Ferguson credited Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff for correcting a “clerical error” that gave time-and-a-half payments to bosses who were supposed to be ineligible for such payments.

But Ferguson argued that the corrections were not enough to allow the furlough savings to offset the “unnecessary’’ overtime payments to fire department brass.

Overtime, holiday premium payments or both were awarded to 55 so-called exempt employees in 2010, the inspector general found.

Fire Department Management Labor and Union Issues