It’s a stick up!

August 21, 2007 11:20 am

Police overtime. You have no choice, you have to pay it. It’s an annual heist and we pay and pay and pay and pay some more. Or, more correctly, the taxpayer pays. Here’s some highlights from the July 2007 overtime report from the police for 2006 and the first half of 2007. It’s all the good news you can handle. Ask yourself, isn’t there a better way to manage this? After all, its a pretty big chunk of change for a department that is already nearly 25% of the entire $210M operating budget. Also note, overtime won’t really decrease if we add 18 officers, in fact, due to the union contracts which are 60% of the overtime costs, it will increase even more.

The total 2006 budgeted expense for the Madison Police Department was $48,507,296.
Wages and benefits accounted for $41,015,602 or 85% of budgeted costs.
93% of budgeted expenditures were determined by labor contracts, other City agency costs, or additional mandates from outside of the Police Department.
In the past three years overtime hours required by contract (such as briefing time, holiday day in future, etc.) accounted for 60% of the overtime hours earned.
The total cost of overtime for the Madison Police Department in 2006 was $2,143,472, or $430,774 more than initially budgeted. This represents a 14.5% increase, or $272,760 over the $1,870,712 expended in 2005, and is approximately $446,416 more than the average cost of overtime for the previous four years.
In 2006, the hours earned totaled 99,024. This compares with 94,478 hours in 2005, 94,669 hours in 2004, 91,623 hours in 2003, and 80,195 hours in 2002.
The hours of overtime only increased at a rate of 5%, the cost of overtime increased 14.5%. This increase in costs is primarily due to the rise in the Departments pay-to-time ratio, as increasingly employees are taking their overtime as pay rather than time. This resulted in an accrued time adjustment of $123,503 at the end of the year.
Demand-Driven overtime increased 12.4% from 2005 to 2006. Although Routine overtime dropped, this savings was offset by a considerable increase in Extraordinary Events, which includes four homicides, significant initiatives in response to incidents in the Allied neighborhood and Downtown, and several high-risk ERT search warrants. In addition to Extraordinary Events, overtime categorized as Holdover also demonstrated a significant increase. This overtime is primarily due to staffing shortages.
The comparative breakdown of Demand-Driven overtime hours is:

2006 – 2005 – 2004 – 2003 – 2002
Routine 15,902 16,844 15,244 16,587 16,882
Extraordinary Event 7,917 3,166 6,061 8,515 2,149
Planned Event 7,177 7,674 6,777 6,084 5,054
Holdover 5,140 4,709 3,143 2,530 2,839
Meetings 967 607 527 379 441
TOTAL 37,103 33,000 31,752 34,095 27,365

From 2005 to 2006 there was a slight increase in Contractually-Driven overtime hours. Although the overall change was fairly small.

There was a 27% increase in the number of hours converted to pay. The increase in this expense corresponds with the rise in the pay-to-time ratio, as more employees opt for overtime payments rather than accruing time.
The comparative breakdown of Contractually-Driven overtime hours is:

2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
Briefing Time 25,883 25,971 25,780 26,160 25,308
Legal Appearance 4,820 5,426 4,728 5,753 5,664
Holiday Day In Future 19,886 20,017 23,309 17,548 12,232
Convert to Pay 7,144 5,621 5,381 4,512 4,910
TOTAL 57,733 57,035 59,198 53,973 48,114

Civilian overtime decreased to 4,188 hours in 2006 as compared to 4,443 hours in 2005, 3,719 hours in 2004, 3,555 hours in 2003, and 4,716 hours in 2002.REPORT OF 1st HALF 2007 OVERTIME:

The total hours of overtime earned in the 1st half of 2007 increased by 5% when compared to the 1st half of 2006.
The year-to-date hours for 2007 are 42,679, as compared to 40,889 in 2006, 36,183 in 2005, 38,388 in 2004, and 38,490 in 2003.
The greatest increases occurred in the categories of Extraordinary Events and Holiday Day-In-Future.
Demand-Driven overtime hours increased 6.5% in comparison to 2006.
A new category of overtime has been added in 2007. In order to track information related to emerging issues, a new category of Problem Initiatives has been developed. In prior years, these costs were included with Extraordinary Event overtime. At present the two specific Problem Initiatives are the Downtown Safety Initiative and the Allied Initiative.
To date in 2007, grant funds have been utilized for the efforts in Allied, so the overtime listed on this report is all for the Downtown Safety Initiative.
Contractual overtime also increased, rising almost 9% from 2006 to 2007.
Civilian overtime decreased during the 1st quarter of 2007. The total hours in the 1st half of 2007 were 971 as compared to 2,307 in 2006, 2,164 in 2005, 2,227 in 2004, and 1,843 in 2003. The primary reason for the drop in civilian overtime is related to the lack of vacancies in civilian positions throughout most of the 1st quarter.
The year-to-date cost as of the end of payroll #13 was $881,001. This compares to $744,654 in 2006, $628,592 in 2005, $638,130 in 2004, and $634,647 in 2003.

PROJECTED COSTS FOR 2007:

Early in 2007, the overtime allocation of $54,900 for the Downtown Safety Initiative was added to the Police budget. This raised the total 2007 MPD Operating Budget to $1,995,736 for overtime costs.
Based solely on data from the first half of the year, if the trends continue the MPD would be $275,000 over budget.
However, since the close of the first half of the year, there have been two homicides and an officer involved shooting. In addition, there are indications that the pay-to-time ratio will continue to rise. The combination of these events could result in an even more substantial shortfall by the end of the year.

Why can’t we seem to get this right? Every year the overtime increases. Every year they underestimate how much will be needed. Why can’t the police department be held to a budget they present and if they go over in overtime, why aren’t they forced to find it in their budget like any other department would be expected to do? To me, this is poor management. If this was Madison Metro would they get away with this?