By CRIS BARRISH, The News Journal
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2007
In 1993, concerned that rampant use of overtime "creates an atmosphere of abuse" and wasted taxpayer money, the state auditor urged Delaware government agencies to cut back.
At that time, more than $12 million was being spent annually on overtime for state employees.
Instead of reducing overtime "to an absolute minimum," as Auditor R. Thomas Wagner Jr. recommended, the amount spent has nearly quadrupled.
From 2004 through 2006, an average of $43.4 million annually was spent on overtime pay, The News Journal found in an analysis of the state's payroll records. For every $1 that the overall state budget rose from 1992 through 2006, overtime grew by $1.50.
As a result, 80 state employees each received more than $100,000 in overtime pay alone during the three-year period, including many whose salary was little more than $30,000 a year. Dozens raked in far more in overtime than they earned in salary. Eight workers -- four Delaware Psychiatric Center registered nurses and four prison guards -- earned more than $200,000 in overtime.
One nurse, Ekeoma C. Wogu, was paid $305,900 in overtime, most among all state employees. Even though her current annual salary is $55,800, Wogu earned $483,100 in three years -- $80,000 more than Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.
Some agencies are using overtime pay -- much of it forced on employees -- at a rate that workplace management authorities consider alarming. So much overtime -- while a boon to worker's financial fortunes -- can burn out and demoralize employees, impair services and waste taxpayers' dollars, they say.
For most state workers within a few years of retirement, overtime earnings boost the pension payments they will receive for the rest of lives. For example, one correctional sergeant whose salary is $53,000 -- but who made $165,600 last year with overtime -- is slated to receive nearly $100,000 a year in pension upon retiring two years from now.
The biggest user of overtime is the Department of Correction, which spent $45.3 million on overtime, mostly for guards and supervisors -- equaling 17 percent of regular payroll costs. During the three-year period, overtime rose 65 percent.
Other agencies with high overtime included the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, which runs the Delaware Psychiatric Center (18 percent of regular payroll); Department of Transportation (11 percent), and state police (14 percent).
Recent reports in The News Journal about psychiatric center overtime led Wagner to investigate what he suspects is "fraud and abuse" at the hospital. Told about the newspaper's findings on overtime statewide, Wagner said he could expand that probe into other agencies.
"We found this problem before, and we're finding it again," Wagner said. "Unless the state changes the way they operate, 10 years from now we'll have the same situation."
Minner would not agree to be interviewed about overtime, but instead issued a statement saying overtime is a "necessary cost, especially in round-the-clock operations," and officials have tried to address the issue by raising salaries for hard-to-fill critical posts.
"Managing overtime is a constant challenge," Minner's statement said. "However, our primary concerns are public safety and the health and safety of those in our care."
Officials at several agencies who operate with lots of overtime -- almost always paid at time and a half -- echoed the governor by saying overtime is needed to operate hospitals and prisons, allow police to conduct thorough investigations and help keep highways safe. Many attributed overtime to Delaware's growing population.
"If you tell us to blink and stop overtime, you impact road projects," DelDOT spokesman Darrel Cole said. "When we have snow emergencies, people expect the roads to be plowed. There are costs associated to being a 24-7 agency."
While business management experts said there are no standards for how much overtime pay to use, they agreed that having exhausted nurses care for unstable patients or overworked guards trying to keep dangerous inmates in line could have disastrous consequences.
"When you put people into overtime, you are going to go into fatigue, and you are not going to get the quality of work you need," said Marilyn Magness, president of the Delmarva chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.
"They just don't pay as much attention to detail. They've already put in their eight hours and they are tired and grumpy."
Prison guards 'frozen'
At the Department of Correction, guards are often forced into mandatory overtime, a practice known as "freezing" that requires them to work 16 consecutive hours.
A prison guard -- whose official title is correctional officer -- must keep order among robbers, drug dealers, rapists and killers, conduct searches and shakedowns for weapons and drugs and control movement. They open and search mail, transport prisoners to court and respond to disturbances.
Security lapses at the state prison near Smyrna, attributed in part by investigators to guards working mandatory overtime, led to the rape of a counselor at the Smyrna prison in July 2004. Cassandra Arnold was held hostage for several hours before the inmate, a serial rapist serving a 699-year sentence, was shot to death.
At the time, the department reported a shortage of 271 guards because of job vacancies and military leave in a force authorized at 1,830. New guards were paid $26,250 a year, less than guards in nearby states.
Guards blamed forced overtime for the vacancies, and some told a gubernatorial task force studying prison security they fell asleep on the job after being frozen. Some said fatigue also jeopardized their safety.
Since Arnold's rape, the force has increased to 1,862, and the shortage from vacancies and military leave has been cut to 215. Shortages have fallen partly because starting pay has risen to about $33,000 -- a 26 percent increase.
Yet while vacancies have gone down, overtime has skyrocketed for the corrections system during that period, totaling $45.3 million. From 2004 through 2006 -- even as pay went up and vacancies dropped -- overtime pay rose 65 percent.
Corrections commissioner Carl Danberg, who took over in February after about a year as attorney general, said about 60 new guards will be on staff by year's end. That should cut department overtime to about $15 million this year -- down from $19.1 million in 2006, Danberg said.
He added that, while forced overtime is dreaded by some guards, others covet the chance for more cash.
"It is a double-edged sword," Danberg said. "If the amount of overtime you are generating is too high, then people will go elsewhere. If the overtime wasn't available, others might leave."
Stephen L. Martelli, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said Danberg has helped reduce staff shortages, but said the starting pay needs to be raised to at least $40,000. That would attract more guard applicants, Martelli said, leading to a reduction in forced overtime and resignations by burned-out guards. "Freezing tires the staff out. They make mistakes, and when stuff happens we get crucified," Martelli said. "These guys aren't guaranteed to go home any day."
Police big OT users
State police can't always go home when their shift ends, either. Troopers who make an arrest late on their shift, for example, often spend hours writing up reports or conducting interrogations. Troopers also must go to court to testify, monitor highway construction sites and serve on task forces targeting drunken and aggressive driving. Many provide security at sports and community events, which is paid for by other other public or private entities.
During the three-year period studied by the newspaper, 171 troopers earned more than $30,000 in overtime each, including nine sergeants and corporals paid more than $100,000 in overtime.
Of the $21.5 million spent on overtime for troopers from 2004 through 2006, about $9 million was reimbursed to the police from private or public funds.
Col. Thomas F. Macleish, the state police superintendent, says that with the 661-member force the largest in its history, overtime is often unavoidable as more cases are being handled. Still, Macleish said he'd like to reduce overtime.
David B. Mitchell, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security, which oversees state police, said the agency should find ways to schedule officers so court appearances aren't always overtime.
"That would be a big help," Mitchell said. "We need to be very responsible in how we allocate taxpayers' dollars."
Lt. Thomas J. Bracken, vice president of the Delaware State Troopers Association, said members are not milking the system, but are often required to put in overtime for the highway projects, task forces and other projects paid for by federal grants received by Delaware.
Bracken said troopers hope prosecutors and judges consider overtime when scheduling trials and case reviews where a trooper must appear. "We get more guys complaining about having to go to court on their days off," Bracken said. "When they are off, they want to be off."
'Unavoidable expense'
At the Department of Health and Social Services, which spent $28.3 million in overtime, the second-highest total, nearly half was spent at the psychiatric center. Millions more were spent at other 24-hour facilities, including three nursing homes and the Stockley Center near Georgetown for people with developmental disabilities.
Vincent P. Meconi, the department's secretary, said that with a nationwide nursing shortage and the necessity of protecting patients, overtime will always be part of the equation. Meconi noted, however, that his department in recent years has spent less than its payroll budget.
"Overtime is an unavoidable expense in a 24-7 institution in the current health care environment," Meconi said.
While Wagner and others, including state Rep. Greg Lavelle, a fellow Republican, suspect fraud in the hospital's overtime spending, Meconi said he doubts any would be uncovered.
"I would be very disappointed if there were any fraud in DPC overtime," Meconi said. "However, I would expect the auditor to point out weaknesses in our processes and documentation. That's their specialty."
DelDOT boss Carolann D. Wicks, whose department spent $15 million on overtime over three years, attributes the amount to high turnover among drivers and maintenance workers, along with rising demand for the agency responsible for 90 percent of Delaware's roads. Besides emergency snow plowing, tasks that often require overtime are removing roadkill, doing traffic control at accident scenes, patching potholes, fixing drainage problems and doing highway work late at night to minimize driver inconvenience. "If a deer gets hit in the road, somebody has to go out and get it before somebody gets hurt," Wicks said.
80-hour workweek
Skeptics such as Lavelle, while aware of the hiring and retention issues facing state government and increased service demands, have trouble believing all the overtime is legitimate.
Lavelle believes supervisors give extra overtime hours to favored workers, and that people simply can't work so many hours -- week after week, month after month, year after year.
"When you have someone who says they worked 80 hours a week for 52 weeks straight, I'm guessing that's fraud," said Lavelle, who represents Brandywine Hundred.
Work-force shifts should be better managed, the lawmaker said. Lavelle added that higher salaries for prison guards and other hard-to-fill positions, even with the extra costs for benefits and pensions, could be more cost-effective than unlimited overtime.
"It would be a savings to taxpayers," Lavelle said.
Better pay would be the logical first step, said Michael Begatto, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Delaware chapter. "I'm sure the state would prefer not to pay $130 million in overtime [over three years] and only pay $100 million in salaries and have $30 million" for other projects, Begatto said.
Craig Crowley, vice president for the Hay Group business consulting firm, said raising salaries could help attract employees. But with relatively low unemployment and competition from private industry such as hospitals in the case of nurses and attendants, it's not always possible.
But unless the state tries innovative solutions, he said, taxpayers will be stuck with the more expensive solution.
"It looks like they are consciously and purposely choosing the overtime," Crowley said, "because they haven't found another way."
Contact senior reporter Cris Barrish at 324-2785 or cbarrish@delawareonline.com.
STATE OVERTIME POLICIES
Most Delaware government workers, whether they are scheduled to work 37.5 or 40 hours a week, are paid 1.5 times their regular hourly rate -- plus any shift differential or hazard-duty pay -- if they work more than their standard week. Many appointed officials, top administrators and high-level supervisors don't get overtime pay. Some supervisors get paid their regular hourly rate for working additional hours.
If workers such as state troopers or prison guards are called back to work after leaving the work site at the end of their scheduled shift, state policy calls for them to receive a minimum of four hours of regular pay or overtime pay for the hours worked, whichever is greater. Because of this "call-back" rule, supervisors are encouraged to use the employee for at least 2.75 hours, even if they are finished before that.
