Overtime: Transportation Department is the Biggest Overspender

In a review of Montgomery County’s biggest spenders on overtime, the Department of Transportation surpassed its overtime budget by the largest proportion.

“We have a shortage of people,” Arthur Holmes, director of the department of transportation, told members of Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee and Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee.

The council committees met during a joint worksession Thursday, where they were briefed on CountyStat’s overtime report, initiated in 2008 to monitor departmental payroll data and develop strategies to manage overtime processes where necessary.

CountyStat has focused much of its work on four departments — Montgomery County Police, Fire and Rescue Service, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the Department of Transportation.

“Because they tend to be the highest users of overtime,” senior legislative analyst Essie McGuire said during the meeting.

All four of the departments spent more on overtime than they budgeted, according to the report. The U.S. Open contributed to $692,000 in public safety overtime costs; $145,526 for the department of transportation, according to county data. Weather and natural disasters were also contributors to overtime costs, department heads said.

But speaking generally, department heads blamed budget cuts and staff shortages for necessitating heavy overtime usage.

Fire Chief Richard Bowers said staffing shortages and collective bargaining limitations were the biggest drivers of overtime for his department. Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said court appearances were a major contributor for the police department’s overtime.

Speaking on behalf of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, warden Robert Green also cited budget cuts and staff shortages for the department’s overtime woes.

But among all of four of the departments, according to county data, it was the Department of Transportation that was the greatest percentage over its overtime budget. The department has already spent $7.1 million on overtime, though its 2011 budget was $4 million.

According to data Patch acquired from Montgomery County’s human resources department, at least two bus drivers made more than their salary’s worth in overtime pay during the 2010 calendar year. The data show 48 county bus operators made half their salaries or more in overtime pay.

Federal law stipulates that workers are due overtime pay of at least one and a half times the rate of their regular pay for any amount of work that exceeds 40 hours a week.

In Maryland, transit bus operators can’t be on duty for more than 80 hours over the course of eight consecutive days, said Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration spokesman Buel C. Young, who cited state law.

State law also stipulates that transit bus operators can’t work more than 16 hours — with 12 spent driving — without receiving at least eight consecutive hours off work.

When asked by Councilman Marc Elrich (D, at-large), a member of the public safety committee, whether it would be cheaper to hire more personnel, Holmes said the lack of transit bus drivers was what drove the department’s reliance on overtime.

Holmes said the department had 29 unfilled positions.

In Maryland, transit bus drivers are required to obtain a class-B commercial drivers license with a passenger endorsement, Buel said.

Holmes said the number of unfilled positions could be reduced to 13 once a new crop of trainees were ready to get behind the wheel — a process that could take six to 10 weeks.

Council Vice-President Roger Berliner (D, 1st district), a member of the council’s public safety and transportation committees, asked whether the lack of bus drivers would hurt quality of service and cited complaints from constituents.

In response, Holmes said the department had recently expanded its recruitment efforts to attract more drivers. But he said he couldn't offer a quick solution.

“When you have shortages, you're going to have some routes, at times, that you're going to miss,” Holmes said. “You're also going to be able to use overtime. But you can't fill 29 vacancies precipitously.”

Aside from the monetary costs of overtime, committee members and department heads also mentioned the potential for employee burnout and morale.

Councilman Phil Andrews (D, 3rd district), public safety committee chair, noted that while it is often less expensive to give overtime to public safety employees than non-uniformed employees — a pertinent issue for the Department of Transportation, whose workforce is made up entirely of civilians — there are overtime costs that have nothing to do with money.

“There’s the burnout factor,” Andrews said.

Council President Valerie Ervin (D, 5th district), a member of the government operations and fiscal policy committee, said she could relate to the concerns over burnout — her son was a 9-11 operator. Ervin said the discussion was worth considering as county government leaders move into budget season.

“I think it's really important for us to get a good feel for what this actually does for the kind of service we're telling our tax-paying residents