Swampscott selectman: Understaffed police, fire departments leading to high overtime costs

SWAMPSCOTT – Short sightedness and fiscal irresponsibility by town officials is a major factor in skyrocketing overtime costs, according to at least one elected official.The police department spent more than $514,700 in overtime in 2007, while the fire department spent $258,460.Selectman Marc Paster said the overtime is not due to mismanagement by Police Chief Ronald Madigan or Fire Chief Richard Carmody.”I do not think the police or fire are abusing overtime,” he said. “I think both departments are understaffed and we need to get the staffing levels up. It does not make sense to have all that overtime when we could add more personnel, which would save on overtime costs and add to the effectiveness of public safety.”Madigan pointed out the town laid off Officer Richard Alex on June 30, 2007, which he said increased overtime.”We are down four positions since I became chief in 2001,” he said. “We could significantly reduce our overtime by hiring more officers. We’ve tightened our belts to the point it’s not working. There are times I’ve had to order mandatory overtime.”Paster agreed with Madigan and said when the Selectmen voted to lay off Alex last year it was a big mistake.”We paid to send this guy to the police academy and trained him,” he said. “Then we laid him off and are paying extra overtime. It was not fiscally responsible. Those overtime numbers are way too high and we should replace some of the overtime in the police and fire departments with personnel.”Carmody agreed overtime is up because staffing levels are down and said he expects overtime to increase even more in FY’09.”We have done everything we can to hold down overtime,” he said. “We’re down four people and the Board of Selectmen recently voted not to fill a vacant funded position. So I expect overtime to continue to increase.”Carmody pointed out the department used to run four shifts of nine men each and responded to fires with two engines and a ladder.”Now we run down to eight guys a shift for three months in the winter,” he said. “We run down to seven guys per shift the other nine months of the year and can only respond with two pieces of equipment.”Carmody said the department has to rely on overtime just to maintain minimum staffing levels in some cases.Madigan, Carmody and Paster all agreed overtime is a necessary cost of doing business and it could not be eliminated completely.”But it should not be used in place of personnel,” Paster said. “We need to analyze these numbers and make some adjustments so public safety has adequate staffing.”Madigan said vacation time, sick time, mandatory training and contractual days account for most of the overtime.”As a manager, I would prefer adequate staffing levels to using overtime,” he said. “But there are always cases where we need to use overtime to address specific situations and to cover shifts when officers are out. There are times we have officers sitting in court for days during trials and we need to bring other officers in to cover.”Selectman Jill Sullivan said overtime is an important issue and something that warrants further study.”I’d like time to look at and analyze the numbers before commenting,” she said.Selectman Eric Walker said he wasn’t aware the overtime was as high as it is and it’s something he thinks the Board of Selectmen needs to take a hard look at. Calls to other members of the Board of Selectmen were not immediately returned Thursday.