City workers hit OT jackpot

More than two-thirds of Los Angeles city workers earned overtime last year, totaling $355 million, even as the mayor issued a directive to curtail such payouts, a Daily News review has found.

[Nedly Mandingo]

Hire more people change shifts and problem solved the work is there to be done more people would complain if the work didn't get done.

[Jim]

Senior Clerk typists are being given OT???? You've got to be kidding.!! Certainly not in Sanitation Admin Sections.. Seems with the exception of the Maintenance Laborers, most of the other OT is all Supervisory postitions... Someone is dipping into the "till" unnecessarily.. How come none of the non-supervisory postions are being that much OT. Seems to me, the non-supervisory employees are the ones that should be getting OT, or could use it more that Supervisory types who make more money/higher salery .. What gives.? Sounds like bad staffing plans...

[Walter Moore]

Thank you, Beth Barrett and Daily News for this truly outstanding journalism. This is real, investigative reporting, and constitutes a huge public service.

Let's hope other reporters, papers, and TV and radio stations will follow your lead, and do some REAL reporting, instead of just re-printing self-serving press releases from career politicians.

[Fed Up]

"But some city employees say that, even with the overtime pay, they earn less than comparable private-sector workers."

Well then, quit and go work for the private sector. I am sure they will be glad to have to have you.

[City People]

You have a misleading article. It is true that there are overtimes for civilians. However, most overtime for civilan employees are not paid in cash but in time. It has been a long while since most civilians have paid overtime. It may be true for the Proprietary departments since these departments have their own budget and do not dip into the General Fund.

Before you write your articles, please be sure that you have done your research well.

Unlike sworn who gets all the cash, civilians generally cannot have cash overtime.

[Bureaucratic Mess]

This is truly disgusting. This is an abuse of public dollars. This revelation along with the reports about out of control salaries and perks and constant tax and fee increases prove that local government is working for itself rather than the people. I think the situation is bad enough at city hall that it warrants a federal investigation. Taxpayers deserve more accountability of public funds.

[Bureaucratic Mess]

Walter Moore wrote:

Thank you, Beth Barrett and Daily News for this truly outstanding journalism. This is real, investigative reporting, and constitutes a huge public service.
Let's hope other reporters, papers, and TV and radio stations will follow your lead, and do some REAL reporting, instead of just re-printing self-serving press releases from career politicians.

Agreed. Ms Barrett and the Daily News are really the public's only lifeline when it comes to keeping city hall honest at this point. We need to get you elected to the mayor's office to provide an additional level of public protection, Walter.

[Norman Moore]

Hiring more people is not always the answer. Efficient use of existing employees and demanding more from the existing workers should be paramount. As a person who has worked all of my life in private business I know sometimes there is more work to be done but assigning it and monitoring progress always seemed to work.

Sometime overtime is unavoidable and in those instances may be most cost efficient. If you hire more workers at all of the costs which are more than just salaries just to cover occasional peak times what do you do what them in the slack times?
As a last resort there are temporary agencies for clerical positions but for highly specialized jobs that is not an option.

If these special events are costing the city then the organizers should be paying for the services provided.If government had to run with an eye on costs and without thinking there is a bottomless well of financial resources it would be a lot better for the taxpayers.

[InTheKnow]

What this article fails to mention is where a lot of the funds for the OT came from. Many of the street services people get paid over time because the list to get street trees trimmed or removed is about a 2 year back log. The city offers people an incentive to get in front of the line by paying up the cost for overtime. It doesn't come from "tax payer" money. Same thing with plan checkers. People open up work orders and the CAO still needs to approve the time before a city employee can charge to it. Sanitation people have to get overtime if they are responding to an emergency situation; it's not like they can let a sewer line drip into the ground water and then have all of us drinking poo.

Investigative journalism? HAH! One sided biased news just like everywhere else.

[Sick and tired]

City People wrote:

You have a misleading article. It is true that there are overtimes for civilians. However, most overtime for civilan employees are not paid in cash but in time. It has been a long while since most civilians have paid overtime. It may be true for the Proprietary departments since these departments have their own budget and do not dip into the General Fund.
Before you write your articles, please be sure that you have done your research well.
Unlike sworn who gets all the cash, civilians generally cannot have cash overtime.

Fed Up - I completely agree with you. The media has turned obfuscation into an art form. As if times aren't hard enough, let's just stir the public up a little bit more. The media does not lie, but they sure as heck don't tell the whole truth either. In a regular business, if a discussion ensues concerning the wages of other workers, instigators can or will be fired. It's called "privacy." There's a word that has little or no meaning anymore: between the screw-up that is ruining our country from the safety of the White House to the vultures who do a disservice to the writing profession by labelling themselves with the laudable title of journalist, there is no privacy anymore. My message is simple, stop believing everything you read and start to think!

[let la raza pay full fare]

How much did the security cost for the many May Day demonstrations over the years. How many of these events do we tax payers have to support? How many would there be if the organizers had to pay full fare like the rest of us?

These illegal looters continue to demand more free services from those that pay the bill. Keep electing racists like mayor VivaLaRaza and you'll keep getting into the same messes.

[waste of tax payers money]

How about investigating the amount of time the employees are asked to 'volunteer' to do March of Dimes fund raisers. The city pays for the employees to volunteer (it's not proper to call it forced, even though your supervisors assign you to the cause). The city wastes so much money so that City employees can sit around and brain storm ideas on how to raise money for March of Dimes, not to mention pay them hourly wages to conduct the fund raisers, like those yummy bake sales. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charity but why doesn't someone investigage as to why March of Dimes was chosen? Why the city pays the employees to volunteer when they are supposed to be getting paid to do work? Oh, I guess...that's why they need some overtime.

[City Worker]

Don't Hate. We get paid for what we do. If we didn't we would hear about it and correct the problem. By the way the increase in the salaries only go towards the high gas we are paying to get to work and the monthly fees we pay for parking. Private sector jobs get paid more than what we are getting paid. So rather than posting the information about salaries, post something about starving children, catching the culprits that did that drive-by, or the war on Iraq.

[Bureaucratic Mess]

City Worker wrote:

Don't Hate. We get paid for what we do. If we didn't we would hear about it and correct the problem. By the way the increase in the salaries only go towards the high gas we are paying to get to work and the monthly fees we pay for parking. Private sector jobs get paid more than what we are getting paid. So rather than posting the information about salaries, post something about starving children, catching the culprits that did that drive-by, or the war on Iraq.

Messages like yours are more evidence of the stupidty of city employees. Shut up with the "don't hate" and "don't be haters" bull. What is this, the hip hop message board? Why shouldn't taxpayers be angry about the abuse and waste of our hard earned tax dollars.

You're the highest paid bureaucrats in the country but the city has little to show for it. And yet we're supposed to feel sorry for you because you're paying higher gas prices? You bureaucrats never feel sorry for us as you demand higher fees and taxes! Plus, a high percentage of city workers get city cars and car allowances that include free gasoline -- compliments of taxpayers again.

Is it hate? Is it anger? Is it disgust? Whatever it is, it's justified.

[RDG]

I, a City civilian employee who works for the LAPD, have never been allowed overtime. Yet, police officers go out of their way to rape the court system in order to make more overtime pay! This court overtime has been a HUGE issue and no one is willing to really look at it and make some changes. It is unfair to generalize all City employees as making alot of overtime pay - there are MANY of us who haven't seen a dime!

[InTheKnow]

waste of tax payers money wrote:

How about investigating the amount of time the employees are asked to 'volunteer' to do March of Dimes fund raisers. The city pays for the employees to volunteer (it's not proper to call it forced, even though your supervisors assign you to the cause). The city wastes so much money so that City employees can sit around and brain storm ideas on how to raise money for March of Dimes, not to mention pay them hourly wages to conduct the fund raisers, like those yummy bake sales. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for charity but why doesn't someone investigage as to why March of Dimes was chosen? Why the city pays the employees to volunteer when they are supposed to be getting paid to do work? Oh, I guess...that's why they need some overtime.

It's called overhead. Each year, the city departments allot a certain ammount of their budget for this. These employees volunteer their breaks and their free time during lunch breaks. I hardly think MOD is a waste of money, but if you think that way, that's totaly your right. We also use overhead for training, for recruitment and other times when we are to be conducting "our jobs" which incidently, the City considers worker morale improvement a perfectly acceptable task. An engineer here can go from designing streets to swinging by Costco to pick up pies in a matter of seconds.

[Kore Vet]

City workers work hard and deserve OT to keep the wheels turning.

[Redpat]

OT is often necessary because the staffing cuts over the past years has required fewer people to do more work. You can only squeeze people so much and an 8 hour day is still only 8 hours. If it weren't for overtime, then there would be the need to hire more people, which we haven't been able to do. Otherwise we'd have to cut back services, which would also generate complaints. These people are actually WORKING the jobs, not taking the money for nothing. There have been no allegations that people are stealing the money. That would be a different issue. I think it should be commended that there are people out there who are willing to put aside their personal life for their work, either by commitment to the City or by commitment to their fellow workers! Instead they're made to feel like they are doing something wrong.

[John]

The problem is too many public servants not working during normal business hours and claiming they need to work during overtime hours. On a daily basis as I work and drive in Southern California, I see city servants standing around, talking, drinking coffee, reading and even sleeping for long periods of time. They all have an answers for their lazy habits and have an enormous amount of time coming up with excuses to justify their jobs. The real problem is that our useless Mayor and elected officials do nothing to stop the stealing. The real answer is to eliminate 25% of all city employees, first no one would notice any difference and second, the remaining servants would have to work 8 hours a day instead of 3 hours a day. Oh, and stop comparing your public job to the private sector, there is no way any public servant could compete in the private sector because you have to produce something, Public servants don't produce anything, they consume resources and get paid to just show up, kinda like standing in line for a welfare check!

[InTheKnow]

Bureaucratic Mess wrote:

...Why shouldn't taxpayers be angry about the abuse and waste of our hard earned tax dollars.
You're the highest paid bureaucrats in the country but the city has little to show for it. And yet we're supposed to feel sorry for you because you're paying higher gas prices? You bureaucrats never feel sorry for us as you demand higher fees and taxes! Plus, a high percentage of city workers get city cars and car allowances that include free gasoline -- compliments of taxpayers again.
Is it hate? Is it anger? Is it disgust? Whatever it is, it's justified.

You should be angry at wasted tax dollars. But why are you putting the blame on the workers? When I interviewed for my job here, everyone else had as much a right to it as I did. We chose to come here over jobs that paid more working for other companies. The whole gas prices and cost of living etc is included in our MOU's as COLA and isn't even keeping up with inflation.

You forget that many of us "bureaucrats" also live in the City of LA and get to pay the same fee hikes as other people do. So in essence, we get taxed when we get paid and again when we have to pay the fees.

I have yet to get my own city car or know anyone that does. I have driven city cars while on official city bsuiness but I still have to commute every morning on my own dime.

If you have never worked for the City of been on their payroll, it is a little naive to think you get all of the information from the Daily news...the joke around here is, they have never met a City employee they've liked.