COUNTY OT STILL SOARS HUNDREDS DOUBLE SALARIES; OFFICIALS LOOK TO STEM TIDE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County officials have taken their first steps to cut down on runaway overtime costs after finding nearly 350 employees more than doubled their salaries in January and 16 others more than tripled their incomes.

The first comprehensive monthly report on runaway overtime costs found that more than 3,000 of the county's 90,000 employees racked up overtime equal to 50 percent or more of their salaries. The report comes six months after the Board of Supervisors, in response to disclosures about runaway overtime reported by the Daily News, directed the Auditor-Controller's Office to begin tracking overtime to ensure the extra pay was justified.

Based on the report, officials in 16 county departments were ordered by the Chief Administrative Office to review the records of their workers whose OT amounted to more than 50 percent of their base salary in January and to develop more effective policies to reduce it.

``This over the long term is very costly to taxpayers and these numbers certainly raise the appearance that there is an abuse of overtime,'' said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

``Selective use of overtime is a way to meet manpower needs over the short term. But on such a consistent basis this raises questions of whether or not the government has accurately determined its manpower levels.''

Although few of the cases have been reviewed yet, officials said they suspect some of the OT was racked up by workers helping those affected by recent storms, which have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and cost numerous lives.

``We saw a lot of rescue workers and public works staff out dealing with that,'' said CAO Assistant Division Chief Eva Snider.

``We haven't received any information that would lead us to believe there are abuses, but we can see certain individuals worked heavy amounts of overtime and we've asked the departments to advise us on that and monitor it internally to see if anything needs to be corrected in terms of the number of staff available or with recruiting problems.''

The monthly reports were requested by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich in response to Daily News reports that 1,332 sheriff, fire, probation and health employees boosted their salaries by more than 50 percent through overtime in 2002-03. A total of 23 of the employees more than doubled their incomes with overtime.

Antonovich said he'll ask CAO David Janssen on Tuesday to give a report on the process to identify those employees who may be abusing overtime.

``He's working on a specific process with department heads to red-flag any incidents of abuse,'' Antonovich said.

Snider said she is puzzled why so many county employees are still working so much overtime because the CAO's office - since the unexpected discovery of a $309 million surplus last year - has relaxed its hiring freeze so more vacant positions are being filled.

``I would think the overtime would stabilize or be reduced,'' Snider said. ``When we see next month's report and continue to see certain individuals on it, we'll go back to the (departments) to see what is happening.''

County officials have recently expressed growing concern about rising overtime costs and employees who may be involved in timecard fraud and other abuses of work hours.

The auditor's ``Fraud Hotline'' reports from 2000 to 2004 show the number of employees disciplined, fired or criminally charged for falsifying timecards and similar abuses dropped from 11 in 2000 to five in 2001, but more than tripled to 18 last year.

The recent cases ranged from a health department employee who collected sick pay and falsified family medical leave documents while incarcerated, to a county dentist who claimed time he did not work on his timecard. The dentist was convicted of a felony and suspended without pay. Discipline is pending against the other health department employee.

Of the 56 timecard cases investigated from 2000 to 2004, auditors noted that only one employee was fired; two resigned and officials intended to fire three others. Most of the rest were counseled and some were suspended.

Children's Services Director David Sanders said that when he took over the agency in March 2003, he found ``people seemed to get overtime for all sorts of things.''

``I'd heard rumors that it just wasn't looked at very closely,'' Sanders said. ``I told them that overtime is only for emergencies. In 2001-02, we spent $26 million on overtime. And this year, 2004-05, we're projecting to spend a little over $10 million ...

``I believe there is still more we can do.''

The report shows that his agency had 41 employees in January who earned more than 50 percent of their salaries in OT. One social worker, who volunteered to respond to reports of abused children at night, earned 137 percent of his salary in overtime. If he worked that much for 12 months, he'd earn more than $157,000.

``It doesn't make sense to pay that much in overtime when we just need to staff up the command post,'' Sanders said. ``But we are limited by the number of people who are able to do that job. It's difficult work to go into somebody's house in the middle of the night and intervene.''

The county's OT costs have shot up from $239 million in 1997-98 to more than $300 million in 2003-04.

The Fire Department historically has spent the most on OT, exceeding $100 million in 2003-04. Benefits for county firefighters have become so expensive - equaling 59 percent of their base salaries - that Chief P. Michael Freeman has said it's now cheaper to pay massive amounts of overtime than hire more firefighters.

``The use of seasoned veteran firefighters who are returned to duty or used for regular staffing is a very fiscally sound practice,'' said Dave Gillotte, president of the Los Angeles County Fire Fighters Association, Local 1014. ``The savings to the county Fire Department are around 9 percent, clearly a figure that Jon Coupal and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association should rally around.''

Fire Department Chief Deputy Gary Lockhart said January was an ``unusual month'' for the department with the storms and the Metrolink crash, as well as sending employees to help tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.

``And then there is the factor of vacancies,'' Lockhart said. ``We have approximately 110 vacancies. We're in catch-up phase. We are actually starting two recruit classes next Monday and another in the spring. This time of year, there is also a lot of fluctuation with retirements.''

Since the Sheriff's Department's OT peaked at $94 million in 2001-02, it dropped to $55 million in 2002-03, but rose to $75 million in 2003-04.

``Our budget has been cut by $160 million over the last 2 1/2 years and we've lost 1,100 deputies,'' sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. ``We've met our budget and tightened our belts, but there is going to be some overtime, especially in custody.''

Whitmore said a large number of custody assistants and deputies are expected to graduate from the academy in the coming months, helping to ease the workload on jail employees. Sheriff Lee Baca plans to use the graduates to reopen some jails to stem the early release of jail inmates - a move Baca was forced to make a couple of years ago due to budget cuts.

``This will begin to stem the tide of overtime needed to fill those custody spots.''

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RUNAWAY OVERTIME PAY

SOURCE: Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller

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