Peabody finance committee approves $2.1 million transfer to cover police and fire pay after heated overtime debate

The Peabody City Finance Committee voted 5–0 on March 12 to approve a $2.1 million transfer to cover police and fire pay and overtime, after councilors raised alarm about multi-year increases in overtime costs.

Councilor Gamash moved approval of the transfer, which the motion listed as: police salaries $315,000; police overtime $305,000; dispatch overtime $40,000; police holiday pay $40,000; fire salaries $550,000; and fire overtime $850,000, for a total of $2,100,000. The motion carried on a roll-call vote of Dagel, Gamash, Turo, Manny Martin and Peach voting yes.

"This year, like I said, the last two years, the overtime is out of control," Councilor Gamash said during the meeting, adding that he would support the current transfer but would oppose any further overtime appropriations before the next budget cycle and urged the mayor to impose an overtime freeze for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Councilor Turko and other councilors pressed finance staff on the accounting behind the request, saying combined overtime for police and fire was about $4.4 million year-to-date. "If you look at the totals I believe police OT for the fiscal year now is up to 2.1 million and for fire OT is 2.3 million — for a total of 4.4 million," Councilor Turko said, and asked staff to explain differences in retro pay periods and small discrepancies between estimated and requested transfer line items.

City finance staff member Mike Gingrich, who presented the transfer request, said the retroactive amounts reflect different contract settlement dates for the two public-safety unions and that the figures were rounded as projections. Gingrich said he was "fairly confident" the transfer would be sufficient to carry the departments through the end of the fiscal year and that there might be funds left over.

The police chief described staffing shortages and long-term absences as the principal drivers of overtime. He said long-term sick and duty-injury absences — defined in the discussion as absences of at least 28 days — produced approximately 78 unfilled patrol shifts this year, which staff sometimes backfilled at overtime rates. "Even 500 shifts at $53 an hour is a lot of money," the chief said, explaining recruitment steps under way, including planned academies in May, July and January to help rebuild staffing levels.

Councilors also asked about reimbursements tied to private-detail work during a labor dispute involving a private hauler. Officials said private firms pay officers for details and that an administrative fee goes to the general fund; reimbursements connected with that strike covered officer detail pay and some administrative fees, and some of the reimbursement money was used to purchase a cruiser.

Finance staff noted the transfer will be funded from free cash; the staff presentation listed a pre-transfer free-cash balance of $9.881 million and an estimated post-transfer balance of about $7.781 million.

The committee’s approval was procedural: the motion authorizes the transfers as requested and does not change policy on overtime control. Councilor Gamash’s comments indicating he would oppose further overtime appropriations before the budget season were a record of intent, but the committee did not adopt a formal overtime freeze.

The committee moved on to other agenda items after the vote.