Overtime pay for Syracuse city workers is unavoidable, especially for police, fire, and the department of public works. As common councilors begin putting their final touches on the city budget, the city auditor wants them to be more realistic about what they allocate for overtime.
Halfway through the fiscal year on January 1, the city had used 70 % of its overall overtime funds. Several departments are nearly already tapped out, including SPD’s uniformed officer division, which used 94% its $5.5 million overtime budget. City auditor Alexander Marion suggested a different approach to cut costs.
“Do we need police officers filling in for crossing guards? Probably not,” he said. “Do we need police officers responding to non-injury motor vehicle crashes? We could have community service officers responding to them. I think a lot of ordinance enforcement currently done by uniformed police officers could become a code enforcement function.”…