Chiefs McLees and Fowler speak to the media Wednesday
/ photo: Jessica Cain
SYRACUSE -- Syracuse Common Council members heard from the Syracuse police chief and fire chief, in response to an audit that showed Syracuse is exceeding Rochester's overtime spending by millions of dollars.
Fire Chief Mark McLees says it comes down to staffing. He says his department is dealing with 39 vacancies, and it takes time to train new employees. In the meantime, he has to use overtime to make sure the work gets done.
"We had people we hired, but the overtime was still there because we can't just hire them and put them in a fire truck," McLees says. "We had to train them, so this is that same six month period he just happened to focus on."
Police Chief Frank Fowler says since he took over as chief, he has eliminated more than 26,000 overtime hours in the department. He says Mayor Stephanie Miner asked him to cut back, and his year-to-date savings has been $1.3 million.
"That's an awesome task for someone to undertake, and I think we've been extremely successful," Fowler says. "When you see those inflamed numbers, and it points directly at your hard work, it's a little difficult to take."
Another point of contention is the fact Syracuse police officers handle security at Hancock Airport. The city is reimbursed for the pay, but the additional work increases pensions for the employees.
From this point, Common Council members say they'll see if there's anything they can do administratively to decrease overtime hours. For example, the city is considering changing the airport over to an authority.
Chief Fowler says he's trying to get grants that will help crime prevention. He says if crime goes down, so will overtime hours in the police department.
Click here to read the city overtime audit.
Original story from January 5:
The City of Syracuse's auditor, Phil LaTessa, is calling for more monitoring of overtime for city employees. The auditor says overtime cost the City $1.5 million a month in 2009.
The biggest source of overtime was the police department, which accounted for 22 percent of the total overtime costs.
The city's newly sworn-in police chief, Frank Fowler, says that's something he'll be working on. "We'll look at where the OT is coming from and what support services the OT goes to pay for and we'll go through and strategically make cuts where we have an opportunity to."
The auditor recommended that the city look for alternatives to having employees work overtime and also institute a city-wide policy on authorizing overtime.
