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Home My WebLink AboutIR 9242 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9242 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council May 11, 2010 ""ATrit'a Page 1 of 4 • SUBJECT: OVERVIEW OF OVERTIME POLICIES AND PROCEDURES Ins The purpose of this Informal Report is to provide the City Council an update on overtime use, including the results of overtime management initiatives and directives instituted by the City Manager. The report outlines administrative actions and policy directives implemented with the goal of ensuring the most efficient use of personnel resources through more effective management strategies and deployment of resources. In late 2006, City staff began a concerted tracking of overtime usage following an internal audit report finding that some employees were using overtime to increase their"high three"salary average, which is used to calculate their final retirement benefit. At that time procedures were put in place to calculate the amount of overtime earned by an individual employee. While earning more overtime in any certain year is within the boundaries of current overtime policies, it also results in an increased liability for the retirement fund. As a result of that audit report, and in an effort to address overtime policies overall, a number of steps have been taken to better manage overtime among General, Police and Fire employee groups. For the entire City workforce, the cost of overtime has dropped by more than$2.6 million in comparison to the total in 2007, in part due to City Council action and initiatives instituted by various departments. General Employees: General Employees accounted for roughly 17 percent of the overtime earned by city employees in 2009. The total cost is $1.5 million less than what was paid out in 2007. Two years ago, Council authorized a new payroll system,which currently is being implemented and will ensure overtime policies are consistently adhered to. In an effort to curb the impact that overtime has on the pension system,the City Council passed an ordinance in 2007 that capped the earnings that could be used in the calculation of the pension benefit. After the State Attorney General issued an opinion stating that the City could not cap earnings for vested employees, Council amended the ordinance to only apply to employees—General Employees, as well as Police and Fire—hired after October 23, 2007, or employees who were not vested as of October 23, 2007. Police and Fire Departments: The Police Department accounted for roughly 49 percent of the overtime earned by city employees in 2009. The Fire Department accounted for 34 percent of total overtime in 2009. Public safety continues to be the driving source in the accrual of overtime. Constant staffing requires four- person crews on all Fire apparatus. This requirement is based on safety and adequate delivery of services, and vacancies due to personal leave represent the bulk of overtime needed to fill positions. Police must address the needs of special events while maintaining service levels that ensure both special events and the daily needs of neighborhoods are addressed. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9242 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council May 11, 2010 Page 2 of 4 a r SUBJECT: OVERVIEW OF OVERTIME POLICIES AND PROCEDURES A key part of addressing the overtime issue is ensuring that employees are not impacted by working too many hours. Both on-the-job performance and employee health can be affected by working too many hours. This consideration is critical in ensuring public safety. The goal is to manage overtime while still allowing these critical services to maintain the response times and levels of service that our citizens expect and deserve. Overtime in the Police and Fire departments is a matter of budget management and consistently falls within those overall budget constraints. However, the leadership of the Police and Fire departments have been asked to come up with a system that will better manage an individual's overtime use. To that end, those departments instituted the following procedures: Police Department While the Department has the largest workforce in the City, it also has the highest demand for overtime because of the efforts to meet the needs at special events and strategic operations targeting Part 1 and violent crime, all while maintaining service levels throughout the city. As a result of the need, the overtime expenditure within the Department was $1.5 million higher than the total in 2007. Currently, the Department tracks overtime through time clerks located at each facility, who record the number of hours that an individual officer works during every pay period. The new payroll system (ERP)will provide more efficient and accurate tracking of overtime and ensure the overtime policies are followed consistently. Later this month, the Department will present to Council a proposal requesting approval of the purchase of a management dashboard that will connect to the ERP system. That dashboard will give commanders in the field direct access to the number of hours employees are working during a given work week and alert supervisors when an employee is in jeopardy of exceeding their authorized number of hours. The Department follows an overtime cap regulation, established in December 2006 and outlined in General Order 406.02, which states: "In the best interest of the health and safety of officers, sworn personnel are not permitted to work more than a total offourteen (14) hours in a twenty-four(24) hour period, including their regular tour of duty, without prior approval from their supervisor. Inclusive of this time restriction is department overtime, special details/events, and off-duty and/or secondary employment. Exceptions shall only be at the discretion of the affected Bureau Deputy Chief" Subsection A of that General Order clarifies: "The combination of department overtime, off-duty employment, and secondary employment shall not exceed twenty-five (25) total hours per workweek " More than $1.2 million of the Police Department's overtime budget comes from grant funds, which requires its usage under specific guidelines and its complete use within its prescribed budget period. And, CCPD contributes roughly$3.7 million in overtime for a number of programs, including for the Strategic Operating Fund, special events and parks and recreation security staffing. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9242 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council May 11, 2010 Page 3 of 4 a r SUBJECT: OVERVIEW OF OVERTIME POLICIES AND PROCEDURES Assigned overtime is managed. Hours worked during secondary employment—unassigned shifts not related to City business—must be approved in advance by the Police Chief. The employees' supervisors are asked to monitor those secondary hours to ensure they are in compliance both with the approved request and the specifications of General Order 406.02. Fire Department The Department's SOPs for governing overtime includes approval through an electronic overtime approval program. All scheduled overtime must be pre-approved through the chain of command. Emergency and constant staffing overtime is reviewed by the Fire Chief after the event. The approval must come from a supervisor up to 14 days in advance of an event. Unauthorized work resulting in payment of overtime, compensatory time or acting pay is grounds for disciplinary action. As well, the Fire Department implemented a hard-cap system, which limits employees to a maximum of 36 hours of approved overtime in a week and does not allow employees to work three consecutive shifts (72 hours) at any time. In addition to the electronic approval process, the Department uses the Telestaff software program to automatically select employees assigned an overtime shift in Fire Operations based on preset criteria. This assures objective distribution of overtime assignments. An average cap—or"moving" cap—helps equitably spread overtime hours among employees. That cap calculates the average of the top 30 percent of overtime hours worked in each pay period, and employees who reach that 30 percent are not allowed to work overtime until they fall below the average. Various categories of overtime comprise the sum total for the Department. These include: off-duty assignments (events standby, coordinated by EMS office and contracted service), special events (TMS, Bass Hall and Downtown activities), specialized unit overtime(public education,recruitment and hiring and training), Urban Search and Rescue/Texas Task Force 1 Deployment, constant staffing and emergency call-back. These measures have resulted in a decrease of more than$2.6 million in overtime usage by the Department when compared to the 2007 total. Again, the liability added to the pension fund continues to be a concern. An Ad Hoc committee was formed and currently is studying pension issues. It will be bringing recommendations forward in late May or early June. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 9242 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council May 11, 2010 µT`"b Page 4 of 4 SUBJECT: OVERVIEW OF OVERTIME POLICIES AND PROCEDURES *r►s Tenure, too, is a factor in the amount of overtime being paid. Employees with longer tenure are topped out in the pay scale, and so make more per hour when working overtime shifts. Assignments—certain positions generate more overtime opportunities—are another factor, as well as the continuity of command. City staff is working to address the challenges that arise from overtime, but it must be pointed out that changes to overtime procedures are limited by contracts in some cases. Changes could be made prospectively by removing overtime from the pension calculation or spreading it over an employee's career earnings. If you have any questions, please contact Tom Higgins, Assistant City Manager, at 817-392-6192. Dale A. Fisseler, P.E. City Manager r: ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS