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Fire Chief Defends Cost of Overtime

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles Fire Chief Bill Bamattre told a City Council panel Monday it is far cheaper to pay for about 2 million hours of overtime than to hire new firefighters, but lawmakers said they remain concerned that employees are working too many shifts, even while exhausted.

The council’s Public Safety Committee backed off on an earlier proposal for an outside audit of the Fire Department’s overtime, but did ask Bamattre to return in a month with a detailed analysis of the city’s policies and practices, as well as a comparison with other agencies.

“Your data is skewed. Your credibility is shot,” Councilman Nate Holden told Fire Department officials, who brought charts to prove their contention that overtime is more cost-effective than expanding the department.

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“I’ve been a patient. I want them there in good health, not tired,” Holden said, echoing his colleagues’ suggestion that new guidelines be drawn to prevent fatigued firefighters from working extra shifts. “It’s just too critical.”

Monday’s hearing came in response to a Times article last week that showed the Los Angeles Fire Department spends a higher percentage of its budget on overtime than New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston or Orange County. Local firefighters earn an average of $19,000 a year in overtime, with one employee banking $102,945 in overtime last year and half a dozen others collecting more than $50,000 each, The Times revealed.

“If the council wants to cap the number of hours of overtime we work, no problem. All you have to do is tell us which ambulances you don’t want to run, which fire companies you want us to close, which calls you want us to skip,” Ken Buzzell, president of the firefighters’ union, told council members. “If you want to reduce the overtime, you’ve got to hire more people. If you don’t want to hire more people, get off our backs about the overtime.”

Bamattre said it costs $71,000 in overtime to provide one full-time firefighter, but $79,000 in salary, benefits and uniforms to bring a new person onto the force.

The Fire Department spends about $50 million a year on overtime, buying the equivalent of 704 firefighters, officials said Monday. Opening the academy and training new people would cost $5 million, Bamattre said, leaving enough money for about 570 new firefighters.

“It’s just plain, simple arithmetic,” Fire Commission President David Fleming said. “Overtime works. New hires do not work, as far as the bottom line.”

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