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Police and fire drive biennial overtime overages; citywide net under budget after salary savings, officials say
Summary
Finance staff reported Feb. 11 that overtime across the 2023–24 biennium totaled about $13.1 million versus a $9.3 million budget; police and fire were the primary drivers, but after salary‑savings adjustments the citywide result was reported as $4.4 million under budget. Fire staffing separations and academy pipeline were discussed as factors.
Deputy Finance Director Harita Nara and Senior Financial Analyst Daniel Morgan presented the city’s 2024 fourth-quarter overtime report to the Finance, Administration and Communications Committee on Feb. 11. The report covered the 2023–24 biennium and identified police and fire as the primary drivers of overtime cost increases.
Morgan said overtime during the biennium totaled $13.1 million compared with a $9.3 million budget. Excluding reimbursable costs, the report shows $3.1 million over budget; after accounting for salary savings and similar adjustments the packet stated a citywide net of $4.4 million under budget. Morgan noted the bomb cyclone incident generated approximately $88,000 in overtime that is expected to be reimbursed separately. The largest contributors to overtime were police and fire departments: police showed about $1.5 million over budget (about $70,000 over after salary savings), and fire about $2.3 million over budget (about $1.6 million over after salary savings). Other departments had smaller overtime impacts.
Deputy Chief Ami and departmental leaders presented trend analysis linking overtime to separations and hiring gaps. Presenters showed a roughly 10-year upward trend in overtime correlated to increased separations beginning around 2014, with policy changes in 2017 and additional over-hires permitted in the 2021 biennium aimed at addressing the gap. Presenters said retirements and generational turnover are significant contributors and indicated the city may return with a plan to address separations and backfill timing.
Council Member Nueva Camino asked about plans to hire 21 personnel this year, noting that is the largest single-year hiring event since 2011. Fire leaders said many hires are already in the entry-level academy (14 currently), that the city also uses lateral and conditional hires, and that an academy cohort capacity is about 18 students per cycle. Presenters warned that offers and onboarding are constrained by available FTEs and turnover; they said training and lateral-hire strategies are being used to accelerate staffing and reduce overtime.
Council members asked technical questions that the presenters answered: the current vacancy adjustment used only salary (not benefits) for comparisons; additional police overtime cited included higher presence at council meetings reported as a security deployment; and staff noted examples of reimbursable overtime such as disaster deployments.
No formal committee action was recorded; staff will continue to analyze overtime drivers and may propose measures to address separations, pipeline capacity and overtime pressures in future briefings.
