An I-Team investigation found the number of employees at 19 area cities, townships and counties making more than $100,000 increased last year, often because of overtime for police officers and firefighters. Read the full investigation here.
“We did have an increase for firefighters in overtime last year,” said city manager Mark Schwieterman in an interview this week.
Schwieterman said the main factor fueling exploding growth in overtime pay for firefighters was staffing changes made to cope with the Affordable Care Act.
Schwieterman said the city got rid of volunteer firefighters in 2015 and had to cut hours to part-time firefighters to comply with federal healthcare mandates that employees on the clock for more than 28 hours a week — even if they're on standby pay — be provided health insurance.
This means the full-time firefighters had to work more overtime to maintain fire protection.
Of the 105 city employees who made more than $100,000 last year, 34 were in the fire department.
“Unlike a position in an administrative office where you cover with other staff with no overtime, in fire if we have to fill a position, then we have to fill a position and have three people on the truck to meet those minimum standards,” he said.
There were 43 Kettering police department employees among those making more than $100,000 last year, though they didn’t get as much overtime as their fire department counterparts.
A full story on the city of Kettering’s payroll costs, how it compares to other governments, what’s driving it and what’s being done about it is coming this week.
Go here for a searchable database of 2014 payroll for local governments, now updated with 2015 payroll with Kettering and many other local governments.
The I-Team will continue to add local governments to this database as they come in.
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