Contra Costa's expenses for overtime up $1 million

Contra Costa Times ^ | 11/11/5 | Rebecca Rosen Lum

[SmithL]

Last year, Contra Costa County paid more than $24.3 million in overtime, nearly a million dollars more than the year before.

As one of a diminishing number of counties that still runs a fire department and a hospital, Contra Costa can expect to continue hemorrhaging overtime dollars, one expert says.

Kern, Los Angeles and Ventura counties also maintain a hospital and fire department -- which, like law enforcement, compel overtime to see that shifts are covered.

Unions say counties would rather pay employees overtime than hire more staff members, because then they would have to pay for health care and other benefits.

"People like working overtime occasionally, but when it becomes part of your job expectation, that's a problem," said Michael Weinberg, who represents the county's social service workers in the Service Employees International Union Local No. 535.

Analysts like Steve Kiley, legislative coordinator for the California State Association of Counties, take a contrary view.

Public agencies don't assign millions of dollars worth of overtime to avoid added benefit costs, he said. They do it because they can't find enough experienced candidates to hire. "The baby boom generation is into retirement, and in a hospital district, there's a huge shortage of (people to fill) medical positions," he said.

Cities and counties throughout the nation are grappling with the same problem, said human relations director Lori Gentles, who came to Contra Costa from a human resources job in Phoenix, Ariz.

"We have to look at it holistically. Stretching the budget, extending the hours of those who are left, competing with private industry for people."

Unions agree that the employee pool is diminishing for psychiatric technicians, nurses, skilled technologists.

"I'm even having a hard time filling auditor positions," said J. Tyler McAuley, auditor-controller for Los Angeles County. "There's a lot of demand and a lack of staff."

Departmental rules and state-mandated staffing ratios play into the volume of overtime. The Los Angeles fire department requires that all equipment must be fully manned at all times, so if one firefighter calls in sick, others must work overtime to cover the shift. State law prohibits counties from falling below minimum staffing at juvenile halls.

The usual pain-free budget ax -- cutting positions as they become vacant -- turns out to have a nasty bite.

"If we've eliminated 500 positions by attrition, we're at risk of more and more and more overtime," said Roland Katz, business manager for Contra Costa's Public Employees Union Local No. 1.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has backed away from his plan to remove a required staff-to-patient ratio for nurses. But counties can get around that by working existing nurses for longer hours, said Liz Jacobs of the California Nurses Association.

"A lot of positions were eliminated, but the work still needed to be done," said Gentles in Contra Costa. "It wasn't a strategy where we said, 'We're not going to hire anybody, we're just going to work people to death.'"

The county just lifted a hiring freeze, she said.

Elected officials "don't want to be seen as growing the budget," said Weinberg of the Service Employees union. "Getting new positions approved is political. No one wants to expand the trough."

Public safety, health and mental health, and social services workers log the heaviest overtime loads, payroll records show.

"We're in continuous hiring," said Lisa Hoffman, director of Contra Costa's Communications Center which dispatches help for 911 calls. "I just can't get anybody to pass the background checks."

That includes testing for the ability to flex with a work load that can shoot in seconds from the doldrums to a fusillade of life-or-death emergencies. The fact that operators will never know whether a crisis was resolved -- or how -- is too stressful for many, Hoffman said.

You can get a big laugh telling workers and those who represent them that public agencies can't hire the people they need.

"They can't hire people for the same reason you can't get anybody to buy your used car," said David Neumark, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. "There's a big gap between what you think it's worth and what buyers think it's worth. I'm sure for a price they could attract the right people."

An aging work force puts pressure on the public agencies to find ways to attract and retain experienced professionals.

The state will lose 35 percent of its nurses to retirement over the next three years, and avoiding benefit costs by assigning overtime "is no incentive to keep them working," said nurses' union spokeswoman Jacobs.

"They have to provide incentives," she said. Importantly, the incentives have to be competitive with private industry.

"The median age of a nurse these days is 51. Retirement is one of the factors a nurse would look at in deciding whether or not to come to a hospital."

[SmithL]

Your tax dollars, . . .

[Wiseghy]

Don't worry. The states' voters just made it clear that they prefer wasteful, arrogant government labor unions to provide their services. /sar

I defy anyone to go to a CC supervisors meeting where this will not be heavily implied or outright stated by the board.

[Wolfie]

Cut services. If the taxpayers don't want to pay, then they obviously don't want the services.

[Who dat?]

Unions say counties would rather pay employees overtime than hire more staff members, because then they would have to pay for health care and other benefits.

Health care, pension, union dues, union initiation fees, worker’s comp – on and on.

"People like working overtime occasionally, but when it becomes part of your job expectation, that's a problem,"

Problem for who? Mandatory overtime goes hand-in-hand with hour guarantees. You want to be guaranteed that you’ll get paid 8 hours (or 10 or 12) if you show up, you better be prepared for overtime because NOBODY is going to call in two people to cover 10 hours worth of work when they *have* to pay 16 hours for two people to do it. And that’s before you start factoring all the other things (above) that have to be considered.

[AppyPappy]

Childs play

Study finds Winston-Salem housing program violated rules


WINSTON-SALEM (AP) — The housing authority of Winston-Salem inappropriately spent about $2.2 million to subsidize apartments and other real-estate projects, according to a housing agency investigation.

The money was siphoned from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and another program to pay $1 million to run four apartments and $1.22 million to acquire and renovate a downtown building for its central office.

The results of the investigation were announced days after authority leaders agreed to fire Executive Director, Reid Lawrence if he did not retire. Lawrence stepped down Oct. 28 after accepting a $100,000 settlement.