California cities, counties spent $4 billion on overtime in 2018

Duties of a principal security officer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power: Direct officers who patrol and safeguard buildings and their occupants. Supervise investigations of accidents, thefts and disturbances. Possess good judgment.

The city’s job description doesn’t mention the opportunity to clock serious overtime, but it’s there. Principal security officer Ricardo Frias made more in overtime pay than any city or county worker in the entire state of California last year. His overtime pay — $313,865 — far eclipsed his regular pay — $25,134, according to state data.

He’s not alone. Another 305 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers made more than $100,000 in overtime as well — 11 percent of the total statewide.

The use of overtime by city and county governments has exploded in California over the past decade, a Southern California News Group analysis of state data found.

• In 2011, just 171 workers earned OT of $100,000 or more.
• In 2018, nearly 3,000 workers earned OT of $100,000 or more — an increase of 1,564%.

And what local governments spend for overtime has more than doubled.

• In 2011, cities and counties spent $2 billion on overtime.
• In 2018, they spent $4 billion on overtime.

Over that time period, inflation increased just 11.6 percent. So what’s happening?

Expensive public safety pensions, officials said. Since overtime hours don’t count toward retirement, cities and counties use overtime to fill open shifts to keep their public pension contributions lower. If they hired more workers to fill those shifts, their pension bills would shoot up.

“Local government is caught between two immovable forces: taxpayers who are reluctant to support tax increases and public employee unions who want more lucrative contracts — especially pensions — and resist downsizing, privatizing, outsourcing and consolidation,” Fred Smoller, associate professor of political science at Chapman University, said by email.

“At the same time, a growing and increasingly urbanized population has additional needs (e.g. homelessness, affordable housing). This is especially true for fire services in the age of climate change. Given these constraints, it is not surprising that OT hours are increasing; something has to give.”

Given current trends, public safety — fire and police — will be the only service local governments provide, Smoller said.

Flames

The overwhelming majority of $100K-plus overtime earners were firefighters — 65 percent of the total.

Another 20 percent were law enforcement personnel — police officers, sheriff’s deputies, jail-related workers.

And the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power alone accounted for 11 percent of the $100K overtime workers, with top earners coming from the security department. LADWP workers make up approximately 2.2 percent of the city and county workforce in the state.

One senior security officer had regular pay of $32,344 and overtime of $229,117.

Another had regular pay of $40,800 and overtime of $221,620.

Yet another had  regular pay of $45,929 and overtime of $196,244.

Officials from the city of Los Angeles did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

On average statewide, $100,000 overtime workers slightly more than doubled their regular pay with overtime. But, as the Frias case illustrates, there were also great extremes.

A San Bernardino County probation corrections officer earned $49,845 in regular pay and more than twice that – $108,181 – in overtime.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department captain earned $140,563 in regular pay and more than twice that – $284,373 – in overtime.

An Ontario city fire engineer earned $166,107 in regular pay and $265,431 in overtime.

Firefighters typically work more than 50-hour weeks and are on call for emergencies. It’s less expensive to fill open shifts with overtime than it is to hire new workers because of the steep costs of public safety benefits.

Backfill

Ontario city manager Scott Ochoa said OT bills are a generally a function of two things: Responding to an increasing number of statewide strike-team requests due to wildfires; and filling local shifts required by the “constant staffing model,” union agreements that require a certain number of personnel to be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“What we see occasionally with organizations featuring a minimum staffing requirement is that someone is going to work that overtime shift (necessitated by an injury or illness, vacation, training, FMLA, etc.), but for whatever reason a handful of individuals pick it up,” Ochoa said by email.

“In other words, whether the OT was going to be split between one person or five people, someone was going to work it.”

New development, and the addition of emergency responsibilities for the Ontario International Airport, also created demand for more staffing in his city, he said.

The Ontario fire engineer with $265,431 in overtime is also a paramedic qualified for heavy rescue and aircraft rescue, said city spokesman Tom Lorenz. The firefighter’s overtime was the product of required staffing for the backfill of vacant shifts.

Another driver is increasing labor costs due to new union contracts, officials said. Employee compensation remained largely stagnant during the Great Recession but began picking up in 2014-15 with new contracts and higher base pay, which pushes up overtime pay as well.

In Orange County, firefighting is largely a function of the Orange County Fire Authority, a separate local government known as a special district, and thus not included in the county/city tally. Similarly, Riverside County’s fire services are provided through the state, and so don’t show up in local data.

Weary?

That some emergency workers are essentially working double the normal number of hours has raised concerns about their safety — and the safety of the public they’re supposed to be protecting.

On-duty battalion chiefs monitor personnel for fatigue and performance, especially when workers are “held over” for another shift, Ontario’s Ochoa said.

Some agencies largely manage to keep a lid on things.

Fullerton, a legacy city that runs its own fire and police departments, had just one employee who made more than $100,000 in overtime last year — a firefighter. How? Its fire department has shed several positions and hired new recruits, easing the overtime burden, said city manager Ken Domer.

The Southern California News Group’s analysis of the most recent public pay data shows that, statewide, 220 city and county workers earned more than a half-million dollars in total compensation last year.

“These data are one more example of why we need to rethink service delivery and whether current government structures work,” said Smoller, the Chapman professor.