Fort Wayne chiefs tell council sick leave is a major driver of 2025 overtime costs

Fire Chief Eric Leahy and Assistant Chief Tim Sylvia told the Fort Wayne Common Council on April 14 that sick leave — amplified by minimum staffing rules and hire‑backs — was the single largest driver of overtime costs for the city's public‑safety departments in 2025.

Leahy, the Fort Wayne Fire Department chief, said the department recorded about 44,000 non‑duty sick hours last year, which equated to roughly 118 hours per authorized sworn firefighter and “is close to about five 24‑hour shifts.” He told council the overtime dollars directly related to sick time for the fire department amounted to roughly $2,000,000, about 60% of the department’s overtime spending in 2025.

“This sick time is usually broken down to a financial issue,” Leahy said, explaining that minimum staffing requirements — set by the collective bargaining agreement at four firefighters per apparatus — force the department to hire personnel back or pay overtime when staff are absent. He added that the department currently works with a 24‑48 schedule and that some vacancies must be covered through hire‑backs.

Assistant Chief Tim Sylvia presented comparable police figures. He said the police department logged about 28,000 non‑duty sick hours in 2025; the department’s per‑hour cost for that category was roughly $39 per hour and the recorded dollar amount was about $1,100,000. Sylvia said police hire‑backs totaled 7,558 hours at a cost of $483,044, representing about 13.1% of the department’s total overtime in 2025.

Council members pressed both chiefs on operational effects and options. Councilman Hartman and others asked whether rigs or patrol coverage had been taken out of service because of staffing shortfalls; Leahy said rigs had been taken out of service at times but the city retained response capability and that the department tries to avoid shutdowns by calling in hire‑backs. Leahy also noted that recruiting and training replacements takes months: establishing a hiring list, conditional offers and a 22‑week recruit class.

Several members raised the budgetary context. Leahy warned that if overtime runs over budget this year the department will request an appropriation from the council. Both chiefs said they could provide benchmarking against peer departments and additional run‑level data on request.

The briefing included policy context about minimum staffing rules and earlier national safety guidance. Leahy traced the department’s four‑per‑apparatus staffing to OSHA’s “two‑in/two‑out” rules and National Fire Protection Association recommendations adopted in the mid‑1990s that led to the current staffing model.

Council members thanked the chiefs for the data and asked for follow‑up benchmarking and more granular run‑type statistics. The committee then moved on to other business.