Overtime actually down $100K, says city manager

LACONIA — While municipal overtime pay totaled nearly $1 million last year, the amount was actually down from from the $1.1 million incurred in 2017, City Manager Scott Myers said in response to an article in the Laconia Daily Sun on the city’s annual employee earnings report.  

“Yes, overtime was down by more than $100,000 and that includes the fact that City wages increased due to steps and COLA’s in the prior year so therefore overtime rates increased across all employees,” Myers said in an email to the City Council and Mayor Ed Engler.

For comparison, overtime costs in 2015 were a little over $900,000.

Myers noted that, at the City Council’s direction, policies have changed at the fire department in an attempt to reduce overtime. The first vacancy on a shift is not filled on any given day.

“I am by no means trying to minimize $1M in overtime costs,” Myers said.  “Staff and I are always ready and willing to explore options for reducing costs and welcome all points of view into the conversation.”

The report showed overall W-2 wages for the city’s 165 full-time and 50 part-time workers were $12,361,685, compared to $11,828,185 in 2017.

Straight-time wages to city employees totaled almost $11 million last year.

Myers, who did not immediately return phone calls yesterday, said some aspects of the pay report don’t tell the whole story.

“W2 wages include all forms of compensation,” he said. “In exchange for the COLA’s that employees received, they began paying a larger cost-share for their health insurance. So raises showing up as an expense are offset elsewhere in the budget by reductions in health insurance.

“The increase in payments for opt-outs of City health insurance also were reflected for half of last year and show up in W2 wages. By increasing payments, we now have over 30 employees off of the City’s insurance, up from the low 20’s, which is a net-savings for the City.”

Some overtime pay is beyond the city’s control. Public Works crews must keep up with storms, the fire department needs to fill vacancies beyond a certain level and police officers assigned to the night shift have to appear in court in the daytime.

Police Chief Matt Canfield said overtime is mostly likely to be forced on officers, rather than something they volunteer for.

“Typically, officers don’t want to work overtime,” he said. “It’s partly a generational thing. Time off is more valuable than working overtime.”

He also said staff vacancies sometimes require officers to work more overtime.

In Myers email, he expressed disappointment at lack of coverage of a recent auditor’s report and presentation on the city’s finances.

“Our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a very important report card on the City’s financial well-being,” he said. “We heard positive comments from Pat Mohan regarding our solid position, strong financial policies and best practices, and the fact that they didn’t issue any negative findings.”