Overtime climbs due to manhunt
Jackson Bell
Overtime pay logged by the Burbank Police Department jumped more than
500% between the time Officer Matthew Pavelka was shot and his
alleged killer was captured, according to department records.
While police overtime pay typically ranges from $80,000 to
$100,000 per two-week pay period, the department paid personnel
$515,188 for an undetermined number of extra hours logged between
Nov. 16 and 30, according to Derek Hanway, the city’s financial
services director.
The overtime amount is the largest Hanway said he has seen from
the department in his seven years with the city. The police
department’s annual overtime budget is roughly $2.7 million.
“This was an unavoidable expense,” he said. “[Police] had to
pursue the perpetrator, so they called in all their resources. This
is not something they could avoid.”
The City Council is expected to decide in February how to
appropriate the money, which Hanway said probably would come out of
the city’s general fund reserve.
The reserve could cover the entire cost of the overtime, he said.
Overtime pay for officers ranges from $37 to $46 per hour, $47 to
$59 for sergeants, and $55 to $69 for lieutenants, said Cindy
Magnante, an admini- strative officer responsible for department
financial matters.
Police captains, the Police deputy chief and chief receive
salaries and are not paid overtime.
Nearly every officer worked overtime during the manhunt for David
A. Garcia, and many logged 16- to 18-hour shifts until Garcia was
captured Nov. 27, Police Capt. Tim Stehr said.
Everyone in the department was so eager to help find Pavelka’s
alleged killer that many worked without sleeping and were told to get
some rest, Stehr said.
“At first, officers were working tremendous hours,” he said. “But
as we continued, we realized that we weren’t going to catch him right
away and we had to divide up the resources if we were going to
continue on a 24-hour basis.”
The department’s inves- tigation division logged the most hours
per officer, while the patrol division, which Stehr oversees, racked
up the most overall overtime because it has the largest body of
personnel.
Many officers, he added, were willing to help in any way, even
when they were off the clock.
“We had a lot of officers volunteering to do just about anything
that needed to be done,” Stehr said, “whether helping the Pavelka
family prepare for Matt’s funeral or visiting [injured Officer
Gregory Campbell] and watching TV with him.”