POWAY – A $20,000 private analysis of the Poway Fire Department's overtime issue has concluded that the city is saving money, not wasting it.

Read the study (PDF)

Conducted by an outside consulting firm commissioned by the City Council in February, the study concludes the city's “usage of overtime is appropriate and within accepted best practices in the fire service, given how the city has chosen to staff its fire services.”

Overtime pay increased from $397,010 in 2002-03 to $829,769 in the 2006-07 fiscal year, and is expected to go as high as $1.3 million next fiscal year. Some firefighters earned nearly one-third of their incomes in 2006-07 from overtime.

The study, by Citygate Associates, LLC, which specializes in fire-related financial matters, said the increase is primarily due to the purchase of a ladder truck in January 2007 and a decision by the city not to hire additional firefighters to operate it.

Adding the truck increased the number of firefighters who had to be on duty at any one time from 14 to 16. When one is out sick or on vacation, another firefighter on overtime has to be called in to fill the spot.

An alternative would be to hire more firefighters, which the study concludes would be more expensive. Because Poway firefighters are willing to put in the extra hours, the report says, the current system is the most economical.

The study, released Wednesday, was originally expected to cost $40,000, but because the results showed few things could or should be done to reduce overtime costs, the second phase of the study was deemed unnecessary, Poway spokeswoman Jennifer Lewis said.

“Most of the time spent on overtime clearly appears productive and necessary for training, emergency response planning and fire prevention purposes,” the report says.

“By and large it says the overtime spending we're experiencing is to be expected in a department of our size given the level of staffing we have chosen,” City Manager Rod Gould said Wednesday.

The study says the city should have budgeted more money for overtime expenses when the ladder truck was purchased, Gould said.

The report does recommend that the city do more to encourage firefighters to use less sick time.

“Citygate suggests that the staff work with the employees to construct positive programs to encourage the maintenance of larger sick leave balances, and that a sick leave management policy including a greater use of doctor's verification be implemented.”

The study projects that overtime will cost the city between $1.04 million and $1.3 million in the coming fiscal year and recommends budgeting for the higher amount since it is hard to estimate unknowns such as sick and injury leave, or unplanned resignations that could leave positions vacant for a long time.

The study also recommends against offering firefighters compensatory time because it leads to more time off, thus creating the need for more overtime. “When an employee works extra, just pay the hours as overtime instead of adding to the daily replacement need as compensatory time off is taken.”

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