Summary
Overtime costs through the second quarter1 of FY2019 totaled approximately $89.5 million, compared to almost $93.0 million over the same period last year—representing a 3.5 percent reduction in overtime spending. Departments with the highest overtime spending totals in FY2018, such as the Police, Prisons, and Streets Departments, managed to decrease overtime costs thus far in the year. However, higher spending within the Fire, Sheriff, and Parks and Recreation Departments and the Office of Fleet Management offset these reductions. The report also found: • Ten key departments, including the Fire, Sherriff’s, and Parks and Recreation Departments, and the Office of Fleet Management, accounted for $86.7 million, or almost 97 percent of total overtime costs; City officials have stated unique staffing challenges may contribute to the departments’ high overtime costs, and should thus focus their overtime reduction efforts on those ten departments. • Seventeen out of 38 City departments increased overtime spending as compared to last year, while ten departments have already spent more than 70 percent of their annual overtime allocations. The departments with the highest increses in overtime costs over last year were the Fire, Parks and Recreation, and Sherriff’s Departments. • The First Judicial District and the Licenses and Inspections Board of Review reduced overtime costs by more than 60 percent, the Office of Sustainability and the Procurement Department by more than 50 percent, and Mural Arts, the Office of the City Controller, and the Departments of Revenue and Prisons by 30 percent or more. Halfway through FY2019, severe winter weather events have been rare compared to recent years; there have been no mass special events. Combined with the City’s renewed emphasis on responsible overtime spending and management, the lack of such overtime drivers could potentially make FY2019 a promising fiscal year for reducing overtime costs.