Finance Committee - 03/17/2021 Page 17
PUBLIC COMMENT - None
REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN
Mayor Donchess
Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Looking through the Record of Expenditures this week, | happened to notice the
overtime on many of our Departments. | wondered if we could address this or get a report on overtime. | found
that several Departments have between 3% and 6% of their payroll is overtime. And one Department, Streets
Department seems to be around 20%. And | wonder, looking at that particular type of wage payment, most of
the Departments in the City seem to be very careful as you would expect them to be with some managerial
oversight. But some of them are very high and | wondered whether it is worth taking a look at them.
Mayor Donchess
Well we could certainly get a report. Now, you know, the Street Department, of course, is involved with
snowplowing. So during the winter when there is snow to clear, they run 24 hours a day. So we incur,
overtime costs to do that and expect to do so at the beginning of the year. | think for this year we are actually,
to some degree, under the anticipated cost. But! am keeping my fingers crossed, | probably shouldn’t say
anything for fear of jinxing us. But we are under, but that’s where you will see much or most or all of the
overtime for the Street Department. But certainly we can get a report.
Now the other Departments that tend to include a lot of overtime are Police and Fire. And that’s kind of
happens on a somewhat regular basis. Like in the PD if they have a big crime, then all of a sudden there’s a
burst of overtime. But what would you like the report to reflect? How much overtime in the last month or
something like that?
Alderwoman Lu
Well | found the Streets Department having high levels of overtime for 6 or 8 periods in the past and so |
wondered about that because | know it hasn’t snowed very often. | think maybe a year of overtime might be
interesting to look at.
Mayor Donchess
Alright, we can get Ms. Fauteux to come in, Director Fauteux. Now, you know, they are often out putting down
salt, even when there’s snow. But it would be no problem to have Ms. Fauteux to come in and talk about how
much overtime has been expended and how much they expected to spend; how much has been done in prior
years and the like. | mean, that’s no problem.
Alderwoman Lu
Just a follow up?
Mayor Donchess
Yes.
