COUNCIL OKS MORE FIREFIGHTERS 2003-04 LAFD RECRUIT CLASS WILL BE ONE OF THE LARGEST IN RECENT HISTORY.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

Hoping to curtail rising overtime costs for Los Angeles firefighters, City Council members voted Wednesday to hire as many as 90 firefighters in June - making the 2003-04 recruit class one of the largest in recent history.

More than 23 percent of the Los Angeles Fire Department's payroll goes toward overtime to maintain staffing levels at fire stations when firefighters are sick or vacationing.

In the 2002-03 fiscal year, seven firefighters were paid $100,000 or more in overtime and 223 others picked up $50,000 or more working extra shifts.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who chairs the public safety committee, noted that critics have questioned the overtime costs at the same time the city needs more firefighters to staff new ambulances.

``We need to fill the positions,'' Miscikowski said. ``If we have a capable, qualified recruiting class, we ought to capture that.''

The council voted to hire as many as 90 firefighters in June, in addition to the 180 new firefighters authorized in the 2003-04 city budget. The 3,300-firefighter agency is expanding more quickly than it has in years, said Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

``You'd probably have to roll the calendar back to 1980 to get to a point where we've done this much hiring in a compressed amount of time,'' said McOsker, who was part of the 1980 recruiting class.

City officials said the new hires would be partly funded with $472,000 in savings from the Fire Department's overtime account. Mayor James Hahn allocated the Fire Department $90.5 million for overtime to cover absences in his 2004-05 budget, up $6.6 million from the previous year.

As part of its unanimous vote to hire new firefighters, the council ordered Fire Department officials to report back on their overtime expenditures.

Some critics have said firefighter overtime has escalated to unreasonable levels and the city should hire new firefighters rather than pay millions to cover vacant shifts.

Fire Department officials counter that it's often cheaper to pay overtime for many absences rather than hire new people and pay for their equipment, benefits and pensions.

McOsker said his union supports the department's expansion, noting that the department is playing catch-up from years when attrition exceeded hiring.

``By all means we support hiring firefighters and giving young women and men the chance to do the job,'' he said. ``To the extent that we have more bodies to fill the positions, that will result in less OT.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com