CHESAPEAKE
Overtime at the city's Fire Department has gone unchecked, allowing a handful of employees to more than double their salaries while others were paid overtime for lunch and the department's budget for such expenses ballooned, coming in at almost $2 million more than the city budgeted in fiscal year 2007, according to an audit of department records.
Signatures on the overtime forms were rubber-stamped, often without dates or supporting paperwork.
The report also showed poor response time to fires and questioned a fundraising group created by the department but not legally established as a nonprofit entity. It said that Chesapeake firefighters were allowed to accrue 24 sick hours per month, three times as many as other city employees.
One lieutenant with a $53,265 salary earned an additional $56,681 in overtime in 2006, records show. In fiscal year 2007, the city's Fire Department spent $2.86 million in overtime, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier and more than any other city department.
"I am not satisfied with our current level of overtime expenses," City Manager William Harrell said after reviewing the report. "We are going to get the appropriate controls in place to better address it."
Harrell announced several changes, including establishing a better system for tracking and approving overtime, cutting the number of monthly sick hours from 24 to 11.2, and hiring a fiscal administrator for the department.
Much of the information was released Wednesday as part of the first audit of the Fire Department since 1996, City Auditor Jay Poole said.
City Council members Rebecca Adams and Dwight Parker said they were concerned with the overtime spending but were optimistic that the problems can be corrected.
"It's alarming, sure," said Parker, the city's vice mayor. "But I don't think it's anything that can't be dealt with."
On Wednesday night, Deputy Fire Chief Ed Elliott promised that the department would address the issues raised but said the cause for the overtime payments may be misunderstood.
With many vacancies, "you have one of two choices: hire back with overtime or take companies out of service," he said. "The impression would be that you're spending a lot of money. And that's true. But the alternative is to put companies out of service, which we don't want to do."
Elliott also said rubber stamping the overtime forms "gives a negative connotation that nobody cares." Each was signed off by a direct supervisor before it was rubber-stamped, he said.
Officials noted that 93 percent of residents were satis fied with the department's performance, according to a September 2007 survey. The department responds to an average of 23,000 emergency calls per year.
"We are proud of the Fire Department," Chesapeake Human Resources Director Mary Bullock said. "They're a very dedicated group of individuals."
Still, the report raised a series of issues,
n The city's Fire Department only met its goal of a five-minute first-response time 37 percent of the time in fiscal year 2005 and 33.5 percent of the time in fiscal year 2006.
n A fund raising group within the department, Hot Zone Enterprise, was never legally established as a nonprofit entity.
n A donation account was not properly monitored, and funds were not endorsed and deposited immediately upon receipt.
The Fire Department is working on plans to increase its first-response time, and officials say they would need more firefighters, equipment and fire stations to meet the five-minute goal.
Fire Chief Steve Best will handle setting up Hot Zone Enterprise as a standalone nonprofit group, Harrell said. If the account was not handled properly, "there could be potential violations of the IRS tax code, State Corporation Commission rules, and trademark infringements," according to the audit.
Poole said the audit was part of a long-range audit plan meant to "hit the major departments within the city," he said. "This was the Fire Department's time."
Fire Department overtime was a driving force behind a 188 percent citywide overtime increase from 2003 to 2007. In that time, the amount Chesapeake spent on overtime jumped from $2.4 million to $6.9 million, city records show.
A special audit on overtime in 2006 showed that in addition to the lieutenant who more than doubled his salary from overtime, another nearly did with a salary of $66,344 and $61,600 in overtime.
Six other lieutenants each earned more than $25,000 in overtime that year.
The 432-member Fire Department's $2.86 million spending on overtime in fiscal year 2007 was more than the $2.1 million that the Police Department spent on overtime that year, city records show. There are more than 500 employees at the Police Department.
The Fire Department spent $1.74 million more for overtime than what was budgeted, Poole said.
In a response included in the audit, the Fire Department pointed to retirements, military deployments, minimum staffing requirements, attrition and use of sick leave, which it maintained contributes to staffing shortages.
Elliott said the Fire Department has already dramatically reduced overtime thanks to 65 recent recruits that went through the fire academy. In April 2007, 7,239 overtime hours were necessary to fill vacancies, he said. In April 2008, it was 2,112.
City firefighters have been allowed to accrue 24 hours of sick time per month since 1963, when Chesapeake became a city. The department responded that the 24-hour sick leave accrual rate helped attract and retain firefighters.
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
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More Education
There are reasons for OT not listed in the articles. After Hurricane Katrina several of our officers responded to a request to respond to New Orleans to assist with emergency response efforts. This was approved all the way to City Hall. Also, almost all training requires some off duty effort. Some classes are required for particular job categories such as EMS continuing education. If a member attends class on duty someone has to cover the slot, if off duty then OT is paid directly to the member. Either way it costs money to have a well trained fire department. Many members take classes WITHOUT PAY just so they can get the education that will enhance their promotability.
In support of public safety
Responding to Mr. Silcnlayc and Mr. Stabdintheback. I along with my family support both the fire department and police department. Mr. Stabdintheback, yes you should get pay for your overtime. Mr. Silcnlayc, if the police dept or the fire department do not want to respond to a citizen because they question something, then this system has issues?
As for the police dept and fire department they are under paid and not appreciated, I would not have the job. My point was, if there are ways city departments can function better and spend better, I am all for it. It seems that since we have a new City manager, things are starting to shape up. Notice how heads of departments are resigning, wonder why?
I am not the only citizen who thinks there is a lot of waste within our "city that cares"!!
appalled
I don't know where to start with why this article was so unbelievably misleading and disgusting. My real issue is not with the FF's in question it is with the newspaper who believed they were giving a fair representation of this situation. FF's cannot be paid enough for how they contribute to our society. These men and women risk their own lives and safety everyday they go to work. They are away from their families for 24 hours at a time. They have to witness and be able to act in terrible situations. No one thinks about what images these people must deal with their entire lives. And the thought that the pay they are given with overtime is enough compensation is ridiculous. It is a hard job not only physically but mentally and emotionally also. Personally as a citizen I want to make sure someone comes to help me when I call 911 and not have to worry that my child is dying or my home is burning down because we don't want to pay overtime. Furthermore I am disappointed that the city knowing they pay more sick leave because they work 24 hour shifts would allow anyone to convince them it was unfair. The city officials should be ashamed. I'm sure if your home was burning down a simple so
More education: Officers making $50,000 plus OT
A computer generated list of people who want to work OT is used to select people to work OT. A member enters their name on a particular day they are available to work. If an officer slot is vacant an officer is hired back if one signed up. If a paramedic slot is vacant a paramedic is hired back, and a firefighter for a firefighter, etc. The program then references that list of members who signed up. It plugs names into slots, and it automatically calls that individual to report to duty when and where needed. If the same 5 people sign up every day and there are five or more vancies, guess who gets hired, the same 5 people!! One who signed up a lot just happened to be an Officer who probably does not have kids, does not have a part time job, and decided to risk his life one more day for you, he just got paid for it in the process. Would you want to get paid if you worked OT. BW, do you work extra hours at your job for free?
Exempt vs. Non-exempt
I'd imagine that city officials aren't happy about the OT because they're probably on an exempt status (meaning they're salaried regardless of hours worked) and they're not able to collect OT. If Chesapeake is short staffed in the Emergency Services, OT is inevitable. Chesapeake is a sizable city and continues to grow. Also makes me wonder about the spending habits on other things besides payroll and the usual operating costs, what else are they spending the budget on? The money is going somewhere! I think OT is just a smoke screen to cover someone's butt. Another poster (A FF) stated that they receive calls of non-emergency nature. I have a problem with that. That's not your job and tax payers shouldn't be paying for this abuse. This keeps you from performing your essential functions like firefighting. The city should be charging these folks for their blatant abuse of emergency services. That's stealing from the taxpayers and violates good faith.
A little education
Chesapeake staffs fifteen fire stations that house a total of 17 Engines (Pumpers), 3 Ladder Trucks, 10 Ambulances, and multiple unstaffed special operations units such as Marine, Foam, Haz Mat, and Technical Rescue. It takes a minimum of 80 firefighters per day to staff those units. Back in 2006 if the on duty shift was 20 firefighters below minimum then it required the department to hire back 20 people to fill the minimum vacancies. If no OT were allowed then which units should be placed out of service? E28 in Deep Creek, E24 on Battlefield Blvd, Ladder 2 in Portlock, Medic 14 in Greenbriar? That gave us 11 people, we need 9 more. BW what other fire engines or medic units would you suggest we take out of service to get 9 people?
"Ira says: to spend w/
"Ira says: to spend w/ abandon "
Ok here's the choices since many are not grasping that the overtime was not by choice but mandatory..
We can all send home the firemen/rescue on the given hour they are supposed to go home and leave the stations empty with no one to respond to any emergency calls...how well would that go over? I guess most would rather they would do this than pay for being protected..
All Chesapeake firefighters/emt's, police divisions, etc..please DO NOT stay if you are needed because they public is of the mindset that you are abusing their money on purpose! Maybe a little reality check wouldn't do any harm or would it?..when the need becomes crucial to living or dying...instead of enormous pay raises and bonuses to the city managers..how about passing that over to the ones that really deserve it, our public protectors???
Oops
Yeah, I missed something in math class.
"I have no interest in auditing these heroes....I think we should concentrate on supporting them.
Would you want their jobs....their hours....their risks?"
All groups would want he open ended checkbook you offered. However, it is not sustainable. Theree has to be checks and balances. When a person is pulling 50K on overtime it obviously causes funding problems. Sure, we all appreciate them but are you going to tell your wives/husbands to spend w/ abandon because we appreciate them? Not if you want to keep the house.
"BW says: The Police dept,
"BW says: The Police dept, Fire dept, School board all go to City Council and whin and cry, if you do not give us this increase, we will have to lay off school teachers, police officers, firemen, etc.. "
Good, so now put down where you live so they can be accountable for the hours they do not come to your home and and can use it more wisely for someone that supports our men and women in the public safety field and when you need them..tough toodles guy..your on your own...
Tax Money
My only question is: Is our tax money being spent wisely? When it comes time for our Real Estate Tax increase each year. The Police dept, Fire dept, School board all go to City Council and whin and cry, if you do not give us this increase, we will have to lay off school teachers, police officers, firemen, etc.. Lets stop all this blank check spending!
Hold departments accountable ! Maybe the whole city needs to be looked in to ??
Stabbed in the back
Stabbed in the back, that’s how I have felt since this article came out. I know my brothers and sisters are feeling the same. We did not ask for OT!! Every single year a budget was generated, the Fire Chief presented it to City Council, the Mayor, and the City Manager. Every year the public complains they do not want taxes raised. So every year the council, the Mayor, and the Manager cut the budget. Every year till 07 the Chief was told he could not hire the amount of people he was asking for. More people were leaving than we were allowed to hire, HELLO!! So an accumulation of vacancies was created until it hit its peak around 06. IN 06, OT WAS MANDATORY!! The other option was to close fire stations. Which would you prefer?
Wake up Chesapeake
I am a firefighter. There use to be a time when the fire department only went on fire calls and ambulances went on real medical emergencies. Now the fire department goes on everything. You have a water pipe bust in your house you think you would call a plumber. Nope they call the fire department. Lost your pet lizard in a tree, Once again they call the fire department. Got a tooth ache or a runny nose? You guessed it call a medic, because your thought is "I will be seen quicker by the ER doctor". This is all true, EMERGENCY SERVICES are being used more and more as a convenience. People are tired of waiting in the triage area of a hospital so they call 911 for a direct stop to the ER. Or they can get there water problem taken care of because the plumber can't come out until tomorrow. We do this without complaint. For the past few years the Chesapeake Fire Dept was short staffed. For a couple of those years there was a hiring freeze. So in order to keep equipment staffed there was overtime. Over the past two years they had a recruit school of 50 then 65. Now the overtime situation has resolved itself. On top of all that, Chesapeake City Hall has reduced the amount of
Why isn't anyone asking...
why Ches Fire is having such a short fall of people? I would be interested to know why so many people have left the department after the city had spent $$ training them. It's not all 'better benefits and higher salaries' in other cities that is drawing highly trained people away from the dept. A person who is truly happy in a job, and feels like their hard work is noticed and appreciated, at least some of the time, is not going to uproot themselves and lose senority to go to another city.
Ches Fire has serious management issues. It has for years. Now, it is coming back to bite them in the behind.Highly trained people have been leaving whenever they can. The rate of disabling injuries and illnesses are higher. The rate of attempted and sucessful suicides is higher. The FFs and Medics are not the problem, and taking more from them to cover up the real problem is exactly what the City of Chesapeake specializes in.
This is why you see Ches Fire people going to other depts and no one from other depts going there.
Stay on Track - part 3 (last part)
On another issue being discussed today - most firefighters do not think of themselves as hero's, life-savers or anything to that end and we certainly don't think that our job is more important than anyone else's. We appreciate the work that everyone does - Police Officers, Construction and Highway Workers, Bankers, Stay at Home Moms, and yes, even Reporters and Senior Producers. It's one big world and it takes all of us to make it work. On our end, we will continue to give you our best - everyday - regardless of how much sick leave we accrue per month or how much OT we do/don't get. We hope that you will understand the whole picture and not just what the media has told you. We appreciate your support as we go through this as a Department - as a family. Thanks for letting us share some of our thoughts on this. If you really want to see more of the whole picture, stop by and visit your local fire station, meet and talk your firefighters, we'd love to meet and talk with you. Have a great day, a Chesapeake Firefighter.
Would you want their jobs?
There are some people you can never give enough money to, commensurate with their contributions to the public: firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and law enforcement officers immediately come to mind.
I have no interest in auditing these heroes....I think we should concentrate on supporting them.
Would you want their jobs....their hours....their risks?
What you all fail to realize
What you all fail to realize is that its cheaper to pay someone overtime then it is to hire someone. There are no extra benifits that the city has to pay on overtime. The city paid approx. 2.8 mil in overtime. The city hired 60 new recruits to cover overtime because they were having a hard time filling spots. There were many days that the people willing to work overtime did not fill the spots that were empty. This year the 60 new employees will cost the city approx 3.6 mil. Avg cost to the city per new employee (including benifits) is $60,000. 60 x $60,000 = 3.6 mil. So the city will accually spend more money. Its just distributed to more people.
Stay on Track - 2
A firefighters weekly work schedule varies - week one is 72 hours, week two is 48 hours, week three is 48 hours and week 4 is back to 72 hours and keeps repeating the above format. This comes out to ten, 24 hour shifts per month. My work day is 24 hours long. When I accrue 24 hours and in turn spend 24 hours, that's one day earned per month to one day spent per work day. Same as an 8 hour employee. If my accrual rate is reduced to 11.2 to supposedly equal an 8 hour employee, it would then take me 3 months to earn enough leave take one full work day (a 24 hour shift). How is that equal??? On Response Times - they are higher than we would like because there are not enough fire engines, ladder trucks or ambulances in Chesapeake. Because of that, units have to travel farther to reach the scene.
The real problem
The "audit blast" should reflect on the City Managers Office and City Council not on the Fire Department, they just became the scapegoat. For well over 3 years the Fire Chief has been begging for more manpower. Each time the answer was NO! Last NO was February of this year. So now after a 2 year audit our City leaders decide that the Fire Department abused overtime, how can that be? These firefighters were working very hard to provide the citizens with the same quality of service they had before firefighters retired, or left the city for a City that really cared, like Va. Beach. This article looks like swiss cheese, too may holes to count. It is disturbing to see that a political figure can address the media with these figures, yet never cover the background of why these figures exist in the first place. What is alarming is this article that was thrown together on a last minute notice for some unknown reason, but then again, that reason is in plain site, isn't it?
Multiple consecutive posts
When a user attempts to circumvent our 750-word limit per post by posting multiple, consectuive posts, we remove all but the first post.
Please post your message, then let others post their opinions before you expand on your original post or add a new thought.
Fred Schecker Senior Producer
Ira is a little short on the hours and math...
You worked 28 hours? Well you only had 92 more hours to go and you would made him wrong. He said nobody works FIVE 24 hours days in a row...
I'm not defending it one way or the other but you did miss the boat a little bit. This new story has missed the boat if you want my opinion...
Stay on Track
I've been reading the blogs all day. The argument shouldn't be against you or us. If that's all we accomplish, then the media has struck again - and won. As you can see, I am a Ches. FF (also over 20 years) and I hope you haven't put too much faith in everything the media has had to say about this. I assure you, as has been noted, there is more truth left out than there was published. On Overtime - we have been short staffed for years - City Officials were aware of it. Efforts to fill vacancies are an on-going issue. The choice came down to put equipment (fire engines and ambulances) out of service or hire back existing fire fighters and paramedics. The choice was to hire back (on OT). This benefited firefighters and some Lieutenants/Captains (first line supervisors - when supervisors were needed) and it also benefited the public - no trucks were out of service on a regular basis because of staffing shortages. On our sick leave accrual = it's not as complicated as it may seem. The city gives, as a benefit, 1 sick day accrual per month. 40 hour employee's work an 8 hour day - they accrue 8 hours a month. When they have to use a sick day, the "spend" 8 hours of that leave
Chesapeake's Cancer
Well, really can't voice too much. I find that too much talk in today's society just sort of takes it out of me. I work for the department. It's been good to me, good people. I've seen CFD's ups and downs. A lot of citizen's don't realize this, but all of the firefighter's in the City of Chesapeake do both roles. Fight fires, and EMS. We are short manpower. Don't gripe to us if our response is too long for your house on fire, your 3 year old in cardiac arrest, your best friend is choking, or you just lost all your life belongings in a fire, because you only have an simple view of what our work is like, or really what it is that we do. Or better yet, maybe a Hollywood perspective of how firefighting is suppose to be. Simple fact, this City has grown fast, continues to grow, and problems exsist with our public services being able to provide quality care and services. And our managers know it!!! It's like knowing that you have cancer, and waiting to your near your death bed, or to sick to start a treatment for the problem. Now you want to talk bad and be unfair about our benefits. Shame on you.
lynn get a clue
Post your address so they can know when to kick back and watch all your hard earned belongings,pets etc. burn I'm sure that would go over real well. Great idea!They take the job knowing they might be able to make a difference not for money or anyother benefits. If that was the case there would be no fire dept. Noone in their right mind wants to dive into an inferno, Do CPR, wash brains off the road, drag anthing dead out of a fire,Cut teenagers out of cars!! Yes this may not be an every day occurence but do you think those experiences and images just go away and it doesn't affect their life? It carries on to the next call, the next fire inspection the next day the next year.Please you have no clue, comparing theyre experiences to a highway worker. There is more to extreme conditions than working in a dangerous situations. We need em,they need more to help us, simple as that.
Ira
I said 5 24 hour days straight... Like SILLYACT stated
TO lynnk90978
I must say you are a real winner. We work on the highways when idiots like you wreck and many of us have been killed doing it. We inspect businesses for our safety and yours, mostly so we have a better plan to fight the fire, we get exposed to illnesses that could potentially effect us or our families. You are the person that complains about the money spent to staff the stations and wants to know why we weren't there 5 minutes ago even though the closest station was closed because you complained about that money spent on staffing the station. Also keep in mind that the better service we provide the lower many insurance rates are which in turn lowers the cost of other things in life. So next time you are in need of fire/ems call VDOT.
Self centered
silcnlayc
Submitted by Skoops88 on Thu, 06/05/2008 at 1:38 pm.
No one in America works five 24 hour days straight.
Not true skoops. Highway workers do it all the time. I once poured a bridge and was on the job for 28 hours. Straight.
In defense of "your" defense, part 2
In regards to 60willys comment. We in the fire service work 10 days a month or 240 hours a month, the average 40 hr a week job works 160 hours a month so we work roughly 65% more hrs a month. 40 hr week jobs in the city I work for earn 8 hours a month sick leave at so that equals one day, but our fire department it take us 2 months to earn enough time to cover one day sick. If a firefighter is out sick that is 24 hrs so why should a firefighter earn less than a day per month. Yes, some nights we do get some sleep but most not, we shop for the food we pay for, cook and eat, we train on something everyday, we are away from our families for 24 hrs and put our lives at risk when you call. WE ARE PAID FOR WHAT WE ARE TRAINED AND WILLING TO DO!!!
lynnk90978
I agree with you on the whole "put their life on the line"... It's their job and they choose to do it. They are providing a service just like millions of other Americans. Also SILLYACT to say "no one wants to do it.." I know lots of VB EMTs that are waiting for a HR city to except their application so don't go around spouting off things you know nothing about. The workforce is there the cities just need to hire.
lynnk
What's the matter, did your application get turned down? Poor baby. You just keep swingin your hammer, or whatever it is that you do. Oh wait a minute! You're not working construction today, you're sending hate mail on the computer. Regardless, keep doing whatever it is that you do and leave to rough stuff up to us. Let me know if you break a nail, I'll bring you a band aid.
"lynnk90978" Please
"lynnk90978" Please remember what you just said on the day you need fire and resue..and please call a constuction man for help...since they do not serve the public and save lives such as yours but yet you sit there and compare them to these people that do serve the public...I pity you when they come with a hammer and chisel to resusitate you...