June 30, 2010|By Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun
Hundreds of Baltimore City employees over the past three years have earned overtime pay equal to more than half their annual salary, even as the cash-starved city has reduced overtime payments by nearly a third, an analysis by The Baltimore Sun shows.
Among the highest overtime earners are 36 police officers and one firefighter who took home more than the mayor during at least one of the past three years for which data was available. One officer earned $173,791; another made $153,160. The mayor's salary has risen from $125,000 to $151,700 the last three years.
The city's list of high overtime earners also includes a pair of library security guards who made $29,334 and $24,322 in overtime, and a data entry clerk who made $27,083 in overtime.
The salaries and staffing levels of Baltimore's 15,000-employee municipal government have received intense scrutiny, as city officials look to plug a $121 million hole to balance the budget for the fiscal year that begins Thursday. The city mostly avoided job cuts, terminating 31 employee and contract positions, but the threat of mass layoffs has hung over tense negotiations that reached a climax this month.
City officials note that the city's overtime pot has shrunk from $63.2 million in 2007 to $43.4 million in fiscal 2009. Many departments have put new controls on overtime as budgets tighten, they add.
"Every manager of every division and every section in the city ... knows overtime is something we try to review on a regular basis," said Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty.
He called the perpetual pool of high earners "not great" but added: "It is a lot better than where we were."
Still, management experts say that the persistently plump payroll checks of a select few city employees suggests some are working too many hours and could become exhausted, making their regular shifts less productive. Also, they say, it creates the perception that management provides a charmed group of employees with opportunities to earn extra cash denied to others.
City officials acknowledge that the system is not perfect but say that much of the extra pay is a consequence of a nearly three-year-old hiring freeze that has reduced the city's staff and requires some employees to put in longer hours to complete their work. They say some employees earn a disproportionately high percentage of overtime pay because their co-workers turn down opportunities to work extra shifts.
Nevertheless, the sizable payments — 77 city employees made more than $40,000 in overtime pay in the budget year that ended in June 2009 — have prompted a city councilwoman to call for an across-the-board cap on overtime.
"It seems as though there is not enough oversight on how overtime is allotted," said Councilwoman Belinda Conaway. "It shouldn't be just a few select people getting overtime."
The Sun compiled a database of about 45,000 payroll records showing each city employee's base salary and the total amount each earned in the three most recent budget years for which complete information is available. While an employee's annual total could include money from promotions, stipends and shift differentials, city officials confirmed that the bulk of the difference between base salary and total earnings is overtime.
Spokespeople for city agencies chose to respond to questions on behalf of employees, many of whom, such as police officers and other public safety workers, are prohibited from talking publicly except through official channels.
The Sun's review showed:
•The city's total outlay for overtime pay shrank by 30 percent over three years, and most of the reduction came from steep cuts to the fire and police departments — which use most of the city's overtime budget because of the urgency of tasks they perform.
•Eighty-eight city workers made more than fifty percent of their salaries through overtime in each of the last three fiscal years, taking home an average of $92,618 a year.
•In the 2007 budget year there were 23 city workers who doubled their salaries through overtime, earning an average of $115,144; That number fell to eight last year, and they made an average of $129,586.
•Top earners included many police officers, but also employees without an obvious reason for working extra hours, such as city library security guards, data entry clerks and mechanics and workers who repair streetlights.
•The number of city workers who earned 50 percent or more of their base salary in overtime shrank from 508 in fiscal year 2007 to 256 in the last budget year, which ended June 30, 2009.
Donald F. Norris, chairman of the Department of Public Policy for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said the small pool of workers who consistently increase their salary by more than fifty percent with overtime "may be legitimate," but said it carries negative perceptions and smacks of poor management.
