Excessive Overtime Hurts City Budget
Piedmont City staff indicates overtime costs in the Piedmont Fire Department may be substantially reduced by moving from 7-person staffing to the 6-person staffing per shift system used by the City of Albany, but this change would need to be part of upcoming union contract negotiations.
For FY 2008-9, Piedmont Fire Department salary overtime appropriations totaled $340,000. June 15, 2009, staff Report, p. 5. By the end of the first six months of FY2009-10, Fire Department salary overtime had totaled $280,000, exhausting the $272,000 appropriation for the full FY2009-10. January 19, 2010 Staff Report, p. 23.
Information available for 2009 from a new searchable Contra Costa Times’ public salary database shows 19 members of the 23 person Piedmont Fire Department received overtime ranging as high as 52 percent of their base pay. These figures do not include the cost of retirement or other benefits*.
Contra Costa Times 2009 Public Employee Salary Database
| PIEDMONT FIRE DEPARTMENT | |||||
| Title | Base | OT | Other* | Total | OT as % of base |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $51,190 | $12,586 | $161,707 | 52.27% |
| Firefighter-Fo&Para4+12 | $101,844 | $43,752 | $19,002 | $164,598 | 42.96% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $36,649 | $8,991 | $143,571 | 37.42% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $30,267 | $0 | $142,706 | 30.91% |
| Firefighter-Foc 4% | $90,936 | $25,672 | $15,938 | $132,546 | 28.23% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $26,534 | $16,516 | $140,982 | 27.09% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $25,702 | $12,849 | $136,483 | 26.24% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $25,576 | $17,829 | $141,337 | 26.12% |
| Fire Captain – Foc 4% | $120,216 | $30,962 | $0 | $151,448 | 25.76% |
| Firefighter | $87,444 | $21,476 | $9,014 | $117,934 | 24.56% |
| Fire Engineer – 4% | $95,520 | $23,433 | $14,558 | $133,511 | 24.53% |
| Fire Lieutenant-4%+12% | $116,484 | $28,111 | $24,512 | $169,107 | 24.13% |
| Firefighter-Foc 4% | $90,936 | $20,306 | $17,683 | $128,925 | 22.33% |
| Fire Captain – 4% + 12% | $134,640 | $23,043 | $10,417 | $168,100 | 17.11% |
| Fire Captain – 4% + 12% | $134,640 | $22,644 | $10,932 | $168,216 | 16.82% |
| Firefighter-Foc 4% | $90,936 | $12,296 | $13,324 | $116,557 | 13.52% |
| Firefighter-Para 12% | $97,932 | $12,939 | $8,293 | $119,164 | 13.21% |
| Firefighter | $87,444 | $10,608 | $12,518 | $110,569 | 12.13% |
| Firefighter | $87,444 | $10,332 | $18,849 | $116,625 | 11.82% |
| Fire Lieutenant 4% | $104,004 | $6,322 | $8,311 | $118,637 | 6.08% |
| Fire Engineer – 4% | $95,520 | $1,821 | $12,524 | $109,865 | 1.91% |
| Fire Chief | $170,412 | $0 | $1,962 | $172,374 | 0.00% |
| Fire Engineer | $91,848 | $0 | $9,847 | $101,695 | 0.00% |
.
All figures are Contra Costa Times data, shown as presented. “Other” includes individual line items that contribute to a public employee’s gross pay such as uniform allowances, car allowance, bilingual pay, longevity, shift difference, night pay, etc.
*Benefits not included in figures: Retirement costs for the CalPERS (CA Public Employee Retirement System) 3% @ 50 benefit, which may cost as much as 38% of base salary per year, are not included in the above figures. (If the Public Safety Employer CalPERS contribution rate for Piedmont is more than 37% of salary, the amount above 37% will be shared equally between the City (50%) and the employees (50%) through payroll deductions.) See Memorandum of Understanding, page 8. Retiree medical benefits, for the employee and eligible survivors, which currently may cost Piedmont 10% of current fire department payroll cost to fund on an annual basis, are not included. (March 15, 2010 staff Report and City Audit Report, p. 4-8 – note: document will take a few moments to load or go directly to http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/html/govern/staffreports/03-15-10/audit.pdf). Medical, dental, orthodontia and vision benefits for the employee and eligible dependents, as well as life insurance and long term disability insurance benefits for the employee, all provided by Piedmont, are also not included. Memorandum of Understanding, p. 17.
