By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Chicago taxpayers are “hemorrhaging” money, thanks to a surge in overtime pay to Chicago Fire Department brass that coincided with — and wiped out savings generated by — mandatory furloughs, Inspector General Joe Ferguson has concluded.
In a preliminary report issued Tuesday, Ferguson concluded that straight overtime payments to the Fire Department’s 50 “exempt” employees skyrocketed — from $18,516 in 2008 to $311,180 in 2009 and $191,293 during the first three months of this year.
If the current pace continues, Fire Department brass will rack up $765,174 in straight overtime payments by Dec. 31, a 245 percent increase over last year’s “inflated total.”
The report quoted a senior official in the city’s Office of Budget and Management acknowledging that the city “lost money” on the furlough program “because overtime payments exceeded the savings.”
“There is a direct correlation between the 2009 spike in payment of overtime and the imposition of increased furlough days for” Fire Department brass, the inspector general wrote. Still, Ferguson said he was “unable to ascertain” whether the spike in overtime was caused by a deliberate “attempt to circumvent the unpaid furlough mandate” or by more legitimate factors.
Possibilities include a manpower shortage caused by retirements and an increase in medical leave; contractual limits on the number of deputy district chiefs who can fill the jobs of absent superiors; a shortage of promotions, and internal policy of not allowing deputy district chiefs to earn less than battalion chiefs.
Eighteen deputy district chiefs also racked up $117,590 in overtime while interviewing firefighters seeking promotion to lieutenant.
No matter the motive, one thing is certain: “The city appears to be hemorrhaging funds due to the liberal and comparatively standardless award of this Chicago Fire Department exempt overtime pay,” Ferguson wrote. The preliminary report noted that a deputy district chief was allowed to retire in November 2009, without taking any of the unpaid days mandated to ease the city’s record budget shortfall.
“Employees can circumvent the furlough and unpaid holiday requirements through this loophole. If this practice is occurring citywide, it could result in a significant amount of anticipated salary savings not being realized,” the reports states.
The Fire Department was also accused of paying “significant amounts” of time-and-a-half overtime to exempt employees “in apparent contravention” of department policy. Holiday premium pay for exempt employees “should be discontinued,” the IG said.
Because the investigation is ongoing, the interim report does not identify overtime recipients or “witnesses” to those payments. The inspector general also notes that his preliminary report “should not be construed as a finding of misconduct against any individual.”
In written responses, newly appointed Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff blamed “clerical errors” for the time-and-a-half overtime payments and the Fair Labor Standards Act for the liberal policy. In one statement, department officials argued that they had no control over when an employee retires, and they insisted that overtime was never granted to “negate the impact of furlough days.”
Hoff blamed medical leaves for much of the surge in overtime. There were 10 deputy district chiefs “on lay-up” for 1,159 days last year, compared to five for 395 days in 2008, he said.
“The report . . . links the ‘skyrocketed’ overtime to the same year as the city’s cost-saving measures, but ignores the impact of the manpower shortages,” Hoff wrote.
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