STAMFORD -- The Board of Finance last night approved more than $1 million in additional funding for public safety workers, but members warned that the city must take better control of overtime costs.
Police and fire departments' overtime budgets were expected to go into deficit within a month or two because of vacancies, illnesses, injuries on duty and unpredictable events such as homicides and severe weather, officials said. Public safety dispatchers needed more funding because of a recent contract settlement and overtime costs caused by vacancies.
After several lengthy discussions, the board approved full amounts requested by the Police Department and Stamford Fire & Rescue -- about $387,000 and $370,000, respectively -- and about $376,000 for public safety dispatchers, which is $20,000 less than the amount requested. Representatives of all three departments warned that they might return for more money before the fiscal year expires in June.
Although they approved the items, board members said steps should be taken to control such costs in the future.
For example, Capt. Tom Wuennemann, who is in charge of the emergency communications center, said at one point he did not have a list of potential candidates from the human resources department.
Dennis Murphy, the city's human resources director, was not at last night's meeting but has said the list was inactive for only a short period of time and has had names on it since.
Wuennemann said another obstacle is that he cannot hire people in advance to begin training if that will increase his 34-person staff. But hiring someone in anticipation of a vacancy could save overtime costs, he said, because it takes several months for a new hire to train and start working.
Michael Pollard, the board's vice-chairman, said such issues should be addressed because they are driving up overtime costs.
"The key is, we've got to get rid of this being slow because this is costing us money," he said. "We have to get rid of bureaucracy."
Fire Chief Robert McGrath said vacancies also were a large part of the reason his department expects to spend $1.7 million in overtime this year. The department has seven vacancies, but positions are often filled through overtime because of minimum staffing requirements, he said.
Before voting in favor of the appropriation, board member John Louizos called for a more in-depth discussion about controlling overtime costs.
"We should challenge all departments to come up with ideas," he said. "We just have to do better."
Board members said they will consider studying issues regarding overtime costs in a committee.
Police officials said 12 vacancies were part of the reason behind their overtime costs, but said expenses also were related to events such as storms, increased homeland security threats and the recent spike in crime.
Nearly a third of last night's 35 agenda items were related to overtime costs. Although police, fire and public dispatchers had the largest requests, board members also approved additional overtime funding for items such as leaf collection and vehicle maintenance.
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