YPD saves $27K in OT in Foley’s 1st pay period
YOUNGSTOWN
With Rod Foley as its chief, the police department’s overtime dropped 63.7 percent in the most recent pay period, largely because of reassigning eight officers to patrol duty.
The extra officers mean other patrolmen are no longer working six days a week, with one of those days at time-and-a-half, or having to work overtime to cover for those who are sick or on vacation, said Foley, chief since Sept. 1.
There were three to five officers typically working six days a week, he said.
Officers are paid every two weeks. For the pay period between Aug. 13 and 26, the last full two-week pay period with Jimmy Hughes as chief, overtime, not reimbursed by state and federal programs and grants, was $42,778.56.
For the pay period between Sept. 10 and Friday, the first full two-week pay period with Foley as chief, overtime, also not reimbursed by state and federal programs and grants, dropped to $15,517.70.
That’s a savings of $27,260.86 in overtime from that first two-week pay period to the second.
“We had poor scheduling that needed to be addressed,” Foley said. “We did it by increasing manpower on patrols. I don’t want everyday business on overtime. I want to spend overtime on specific programs. We’re making progress.”
As the effort is fine-tuned, Foley expects a somewhat larger overtime savings.
Mayor Charles Sammarone said he couldn’t believe it when Foley told him Friday of the savings.
“When he first told me, I said, ‘You made a mistake,’” said Sammarone, mayor since Aug. 1 and the person who hired Foley as chief.
“He showed me the numbers. That’s a lot of money. I don’t want to say anything bad about previous administrations, but that’s a huge savings.”
Moving officers to the patrol division means there is less presence on other units such as the Mahoning County Violent Crimes Task Force and V-GRIP. But between the monetary savings and overworking officers to the point that they are too tired to be effective, the change was needed, Foley said.
As of Sept. 16, the police department had used $1,211,919.69 for overtime for the year.
It originally had $1,375,000 in its overtime budget, but city council moved $555,000 from overtime to pay for new hires. After discussions with the city administration in April, council agreed to return $400,000 to the overtime budget. That means there is $1,222,000 for police overtime.
The department will exceed that budgeted amount in a week or so.
But Foley said the police department’s budgeted overtime needs will drop to about $400,000 next year.
Some of the savings from reduced overtime would go toward the hiring of new police officers, Foley said. He added that he’d like to hire eight officers in December.
Foley said he also wants to focus on improving response time by officers to crime calls, and with more officers, he expects more arrests.