Audit shows growth of firefighters’ overtime spending

Firefighters continue to rack up overtime while the Austin Fire Department continues to recruit and train more firefighters as others retire.

According to a report presented to the city’s Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday, the department was on track to spend more than $20 million on overtime for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2022. When the Austin Monitor asked AFD for the final figure for overtime in the previous fiscal year, a spokesperson said that number was $21.1 million, the highest overtime figure so far for the department.

When City Council first asked for an audit of the department’s overtime expenditures, the year was 2017 and Council was not pleased. That summer, Council approved a budget amendment to increase funds for the Fire Department after it became clear that the extra money was needed to finish the year.

According to this week’s audit report, the amount of overtime pay fell from its peak of $21 million in Fiscal Year 2017 to $14 million in FY 2018 and $11 million in FY 2019. However, by FY 2021, that number had gone back up to $18 million and was still climbing in FY 2022.

That overtime pay is directly related to the complicated schedule that the Fire Department must maintain, operating 24/7, including weekends. In addition, sworn Fire Department employees operate under rules determined by a collective bargaining agreement and departmental policy.

The department maintains a schedule that attempts to find replacement workers who are paid the least, in order to save the department money. But that is harder to do when an employee asks for time off shortly before their shift begins.

The audit found that firefighters are more likely to ask for sick leave on Saturday and Sunday than other days of the week. If that time off was taken as vacation, the department could plan ahead and spend less money on overtime. The same was true in 2017.

In 2017, Council Member Alison Alter was one of those asking for an audit to see how the Fire Department might improve its financial situation and spend less on overtime. Now, as chair of the Audit and Finance Committee, Alter is once again asking how the department can do better in its use of city funds.

Alter said she understands that AFD has more fire stations and firefighters than it did in 2017, but the department has fewer vacancies than it did that year. After the meeting, Alter said she was not sure whether there is any relationship between having more stations and having more sick leave. She pointed out that the city had gone through Covid, which was hard on all departments. She suggested that perhaps they would turn the corner in 2023.

Battalion Chief Thayer Smith, who accompanied Fire Chief Joel Baker at Wednesday’s meeting, has worked for AFD for more than 31 years, according to his LinkedIn page. He said the department still has a personnel deficit, with about 78 unfilled positions. One or two firefighters retire each month, he said. The department currently has about 1,350 personnel and 75 to 80 recruits in training.

Council Member Ryan Alter, who joined Council this year, asked questions about four-person staffing, which is required for all firefighter units. Under an ordinance approved by Council in 2018, four-person crews “were better at completing tasks related to structure fires,” according to the audit. However, the audit team found that “between FY 19 and FY 21 only 1 percent of AFD’s calls were structure fires, and multiple units, each with at least four firefighters, responded to the vast majority of these calls.”

In response to Ryan Alter’s questions, Baker, who joined AFD in late 2018, said using fewer than four firefighters “works theoretically, but not in reality.” He then gave several scenarios in which it would be dangerous for fewer than four firefighters to go on a call. He said he realized that only 1 percent of the department’s calls were structure fires, then added, “I don’t know what day, what time that call will be. We are better than State Farm and Allstate,” he said, referring to the insurance companies. “We’re always prepared to put ourselves in harm’s way.”

Baker said when Covid-19 became less prevalent, firefighters started taking more vacations, which accounts for some of the overtime pay. In addition, he said the city added parental leave, and 50 to 70 members of the department are on injury leave at any particular time. In addition, Baker said a lot of AFD employees were suffering from mental fatigue and PTSD. However, he agreed with the idea of reducing use of sick leave.

Alter noted that Baker would be working with interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills in trying to figure out how to reduce sick leave at AFD.

Photo by J.Köster, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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