Fire chief says overtime will be under control

Executive says third fire recruit class not needed; chief says department can handle its duties without it

Carr met with the committee less than a week after the release of a report that found Fire and Rescue will exceed its overtime budget for a fifth consecutive year. The report came from county Inspector General Thomas J. Dagley, who described the department’s overtime spending in a report a year ago, prompting new management policies.

‘‘We’ve made a lot of progress and have a better handle on all the issues related to overtime,” Carr said. ‘‘The remaining issue is who works overtime, and that starts with what position are you filling for a given vacancy and what specialty is required.”

From 2004 to 2007, overtime for the department increased 47.5 percent, the largest increase among the four county departments using the most overtime. Most of the overtime cited in Dagley’s report was paid to captains, who accounted for the top 10 overtime earners and receive a base yearly salary of $97,414. In 2007, the largest amount was paid to a captain receiving $141,478 in overtime pay.

Most of the overtime was paid at a rate of one and one-half times an employee’s hourly pay. Wages and benefits at county agencies account for about 80 percent of the county’s operating budget, proposed by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) at $4.3 billion for fiscal 2009, which begins July 1.

Dagley’s first report on the agency, issued last April, included six findings including outdated overtime policies, insufficient overtime management, lack of a comprehensive management system and unrealistic overtime budgets. At that time the inspector general’s report found that the department paid out $1.1 million in questionable overtime in 2006 as part of the outdated procedures and oversight. The reports issued over two years found no fraud in the payments.

Since then, the department has put an updated payroll system in place to track timesheets and overtime payments and required overtime to be certified. But still outstanding, is a better method for managing personnel.

The department is short-staffed in some categories, including training instructors and EMT supervisors, which sometimes lead to captains filling the positions, Carr said. The department is working on training lower-level employees — with lower base salaries — to fill the specialized positions.

‘‘Now most importantly looking at us going forward, the ability of us to garner payroll data regarding overtime has become an important tool for us,” said Carr, who said department officials now audit timesheets every pay period. ‘‘This has been an opportunity for us to change the culture of how we review the data. ... We’re not there this year, we still don’t have overtime adequately allocated. We have a lot of work to do.”

While the department is dealing with overtime, the Public Safety Committee is also deciding on the department’s budget allocation.

Leggett’s fiscal 2009 budget proposal includes money for 36 staff at the Germantown⁄Kingsview Firs Station scheduled to open in March 2009, but also recommends shifting nighttime EMS resources from the Laytonsville and Glen Echo stations to other stations to reduce overtime costs. Staffing for an aerial truck at the Hillandale station had also been recommended for elimination.

On Tuesday, the committee recommended reinstating the positions at the three stations.

In the latest round of budget amendments, Leggett has proposed eliminating one of three recruiting classes, a $1.92 million budget reduction. Based on the staffing levels in the department and the needs for the opening of the new Germantown station, it was determined that the third class was not needed, said Patrick K. Lacefield, Leggett’s spokesman.

‘‘We can do fine with two classes as opposed to three and still meet staffing demands,” Carr said.

Councilman and committee member Marc Elrich disagreed.

‘‘I think it’s a mistake not to do the recruit class,” said Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park. ‘‘So where do we plan to get the fire staff from? I’m opposed to stripping the fire staff from the down county to staff the upcounty.”

As part of the budget amendments, Leggett proposed using county funds to supplement $1.2 million in state funding for Montgomery College. Posing the recruit class as a tradeoff for the college funding — as some council members described it — was inaccurate, Lacefield said.

‘‘There is a range of pluses and minuses, a range of revenue and expense and shortfalls, but there is not a tit-for-tat,” he said.

Whether the council agrees with eliminating the recruit class depends on other budget decisions, said Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, who is still evaluating the recommendation.

What the council will not be evaluating during the budget deliberations is a proposed ambulance fee, said Council President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown.

To pay for some of the fire and rescue service initiatives, Leggett proposed an EMS fee in his budget proposal expected to generate about $7 million in revenue. Under the proposal, the fee would be implemented in January and would be paid by insurance companies when county residents require emergency assistance.

But the fee recommendation is ‘‘too late” for the council to consider at the same time as the budget, Knapp said Monday in a discussion with reporters.

There was concern that residents would think that because the fee was considered as part of the budget recommendation, that the council would automatically pass it, he said. ‘‘It didn’t make sense to just assume it.”

Without the fee, the council will have to look to other options to plug the $7 million hole.

The public safety committee is also considering proposed reductions and cuts to 17 programs funded by the police department. Council staff recommended the committee restore all or part of six of the proposed cuts, including $687,000 for a recruiting class for 20 new officers beginning January 2009 and $623,000 to retain community outreach and policing officers.

There has been a reluctance by council members to ‘‘take a step backwards,” Knapp said, noting that members wanted to ‘‘stay at least even” in terms of public safety funding and programs.