Audit Bolsters City’s Claims of Pay Abuse

An independent audit released Tuesday bolsters allegations by city officials that firefighters manipulated loopholes in the overtime pay system at a potential cost to the city of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But the audit, prepared by accountants KPMG Peat Marwick after a six-month review, suggests that the blame rests as much with the system of management at the Fire Department as with the employees who abused it. The report concludes that Fire Department managers were “ineffective” in preventing the excessive use of overtime through the years.

“We knew there was something wrong, but we are appalled at the depth of the abuse,” said Mayor Charles V. Smith. “The different schemes that were used to turn straight time into overtime is shocking.”

Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman said she thought the report served as “a tremendous vindication” for the council’s decision to investigate the Fire Department.

“I think this raises some serious moral and ethical issues,” Bohman said.

Firefighters, who are seeking a recall election of Smith and three other council members, expressed outrage with the auditor’s report.

“It’s total smoke and screens, and lies and innuendoes,” said Paul Gilbrook, a firefighter who was recently fired. Gilbrook is appealing that decision. “It’s an election year and they’re trying to keep themselves in office.”

The firefighters’ attorney, Alan C. Davis, called the report inaccurate and unprofessional.

“They got their facts totally wrong and are slandering the firefighters,” Davis said.

The report submitted to the council Tuesday indicated that some Fire Department employees who received $20,000 to $40,000 a year in total overtime abused the system, and that some of the pay appears to have been improper.

In the seven years that the auditors reviewed, the Fire Department spent $4.8 million on overtime, with yearly totals starting at $341,000 in 1986 and peaking at more than $900,000 in 1990. Last year’s total was $661,000.

Complete records for 1988 were not available.

The auditors did not say how much of those overtime totals may have been wrongfully charged, but they concluded that faulty record-keeping appears to have routinely resulted in overpayments and double billings at the department.

“The level of overtime charges does not appear to be the result of large fires or other emergencies, but rather (was) caused by payroll and staffing practices,” the auditors said in their report.

The audit will be discussed at a public council study session at 11:30 a.m. Friday at City Hall.

The report appears likely to strain relations even further between city officials and members of the Westminster Firefighters Assn.

The city has fired the union’s president and suspended a fire captain in recent months as problems between the two groups intensified, and the union has countered by suing the city and leading a recall effort against Smith and four members of the council.

Acting City Manager Robert Huntley said a copy of the audit was sent Tuesday to the Orange County district attorney’s office, which is investigating the allegations of overtime fraud to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

The audit found that:

* Fire Department employees routinely collected overtime for working shifts left vacant by staffing problems.

* Employees took unauthorized “administrative time off,” and their shifts were then covered through overtime pay.

* The practice of trading shifts allowed employees to be paid overtime for shifts that they did not actually work.