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.”