Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Police and Fire Medical Overtime vs. New FTEs
Background
Commissioners requested an analysis comparing overtime incurred in the Fire Medical and Police departments to the cost of additional FTE positions in order to inform a discussion about adding positions to reduce expenditures on overtime.
Overtime in public safety operations cannot be completely eliminated because of the nature of these services and several factors beyond the control of the department that drive overtime. Significant investment in new positions may reduce overtime hours but reductions in overtime costs would be offset by cost increases associated with those new positions.
Staffing Needs
In the Fire Medical service, staffing needs are driven by the need to maintain the department’s minimum level of service and preparedness. Fire Medical Department workloads are driven by emergencies, including structure fires, auto accidents, injuries and medical emergencies. The Department must be staffed to maintain the preparedness levels necessary to provide effective and timely 24/7 service in different types of emergencies with differing levels of severity. The Department must also be prepared to respond to multiple emergencies occurring simultaneously across the service area. Minimum staffing needs must be achieved despite vacation leave, sick leave, FMLA protected time off, time needed for training and certifications, and any other demands that take personnel away from regular duty.
Police Department workloads are driven in large part by prevention, calls for service and investigations of crime. Overtime is driven by the need to staff the department to effectively respond to incidents and investigate crimes. Patrol and investigations often require personnel to work beyond their assigned shifts. For example, police officers cannot clock out in the middle of an active incident or investigation and detectives are often called out to investigate major incidents after normal work hours. Overtime is also incurred when replacements are needed to cover for officers/detectives who are away from duty for vacation or sick leave, training, or other reasons.
Other unique factors in the public safety departments drive overtime. For example, both departments incur overtime when employees staff special community events. Those overtime expenditures are often offset by corresponding reimbursements which are reported as revenue in the budget document. Additionally, the Police and Fire MOU agreements dictate different terms for when and how overtime is accrued compared to non-MOU group employees.
Overtime vs. New FTE Positions
Reductions in overtime costs from the addition of new FTEs would be offset by a number of factors that are significant but not quantifiable in this review. For example, the Police Department’s priority for additional FTE positions would be addressing existing service deficits. Another factor is that the new FTEs will need time away from duty for vacation, sick leave, and training, for example. When this occurs, shift coverage from other personnel (likely requiring overtime) will be needed to maintain staffing levels and avoid reductions in service levels. New FTEs will also accrue overtime, which will further offset reductions in overtime.
Fire Medical and Police leadership evaluated their departments’ abilities to reduce overtime hours against the cost of adding new FTEs to achieve potential overtime reductions. Both departments concluded that it may be possible to achieve a reduction in overtime hours but the cost of adding FTEs in order to reduce overtime hours could possibly result in a net cost increase. Adding new FTEs would not produce a one-to-one reduction in overtime hours. A calculation of the net cost increase resulting from new positions created to minimize overtime hours would be theoretical at this point. The cost increase could be significantly more than the overtime savings though. The table below reports the 2014 overtime costs and the average cost of one new FTE.
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2014 Overtime Costs vs. Cost of a new FTE Position |
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|
Department |
Annual Overtime Costs |
Annual Cost of a new FTE |
|
Firefighter* |
$609,812 |
$52,803 |
|
Police Officer |
$543,651 |
$73,429 |
|
Detective |
$603,938 |
$119,077 |
*only includes overtime for operations
As an alternative to adding new FTEs, the Fire Medical Department has successfully utilized the Extra-board Program to reduce overtime costs. Extra-board firefighters worked 19,457 hours in 2014 at a cost of $298,795. For comparison, regular full-time staff worked 17,707 overtime hours at a cost of $609,812.
Conclusion
Staff’s preliminary evaluation concludes that adding new FTE positions is not expected to be a cost effective strategy for reducing overtime costs. Workloads and service levels drive the Fire Medical and Police departments’ staffing needs. New FTEs would enable the departments to improve service levels and may result in some reduction of overtime, but it is expected that cost savings in overtime would be offset by the cost of the new positions. A comprehensive overtime reduction strategy for these departments would be complex and would require data that is not readily available.