IG Says City "Hemorrhaging" Cash With Overtime Pay

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jul 7, 2010 3:40PM

In a newly issued report [PDF], Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson says that a recently completed audit of overtime pay for the 50 exempt positions in the fire department show that Chicago is "hemorrhaging" cash. Exempt positions are those that not governed by city and federal hiring oversight - essentially formalized political appointments. Ferguson says that overtime payments have "skyrocketed," from $18,516 in 2008 to $311,180 in 2009 and $191,293 during the first three months of this year. If payments continue at the current pace, it will cost Chicago $765,174, an increase of almost 250 percent over last year's already inflated numbers. The surge in increased payments coincides with Daley's recent mandate that city workers take furlough days to help close the city's budget hole. Those savings have been wiped out as the mayor's top brass take "liberal" overtime payments from the city.

Ferguson says that it's not clear what caused the suspiciously timed increase in overtime payments, but CBS2 says that Ferguson notes that it may be due to:

a manpower shortage caused by retirements and an increase in the number of brass on medical leave; an "attempt to circumvent the unpaid furlough mandate;" contractual limits on the number of deputy district chiefs who can "act up" and replace absent superiors; a lack of promotions and an internal policy of never allowing deputy district chiefs to earn less than batallion chiefs.

Whatever the cause, Ferguson reports, "The city appears to be hemorrhaging funds due to the liberal and comparatively standardless award of this Chicago Fire Department exempt overtime pay," noting that one Chicago Office of Budget and Management told his investigators that the city lost money on the furlough program "because overtime payments exceeded the savings."