By FireRescue1 Staff
WASHINGTON — D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean issued more than $20,000 in bonuses for department personnel this year.
Chief Dean approved the bonuses for four assistant fire chiefs and a civilian employee; these are the first he has issued since taking office in 2015.
“We’ve been working very hard for the last year and a half or two years, and I felt I needed to acknowledge the hard work that they did,” Chief Dean told WTOP.
Mayor Muriel Bowser also supported the bonuses. “I rely on seasoned managers like Chief Dean to make the right personnel decisions at this department,” Bowser said.
The bonuses come after overtime costs have nearly doubled over the last two years. The department paid out $12 million in overtime in 2015 — a figure that jumped to $23 million in 2016.
Chief Dean said the department’s high overcosts are partially due to an 8-year hiring hiatus.