Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Deirdra L. Picou (212) 788-2971
Joining the Mayor at today's press conference were Deputy Mayor for Operations Randy Mastro, Department of Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty, First Deputy Police Commissioner Tosano J. Simonetti, Department of Correction First Deputy Commissioner Bernard Kerik and Office of Operations Director Donna Lynne.
The Mayor noted that the reduction in overtime for regular City agency operations in Fiscal 1996 was offset by $40.7 million in overtime incurred as a result of record-breaking snowfall in the winter of 1995-1996 and two major, multi-national events. As a result of these costs, total Fiscal 1996 overtime is $493.0 million, an increase of $21.7 million compared with $471.3 million in total overtime in Fiscal 1995, but still well below Fiscal 1994 total overtime costs of $542.8 million. The $40.7 million in one-time overtime consists of $32.7 million used to maintain City operations during the snowstorms that battered New York City last winter and $8.0 million used to ensure security during the Pope's visit and the United Nations' 50th Anniversary Celebration in autumn of 1995. In the previous winter, $3.6 million in overtime was attributed to snow operations, and, in Fiscal 1994, $29.4 million. There were no large one-time special events in Fiscal 1994 or Fiscal 1995.
In the Department of Corrections, overtime was reduced by 16 percent, from $89.2 million in Fiscal 1995 to $74.5 million in Fiscal 1996. In the Department of Sanitation, while snow expenditures resulted in an overall increase in overtime, overtime for regular operations, which the department can control, decreased from $67.2 million in Fiscal 1995 to $49.7 million. In the Police Department regular operations overtime, excluding the Pope and UN 50th celebration expenses and adjusted for newly merged transit and housing overtime decreased from $94.4 million in Fiscal 1995 to $88.1 million in Fiscal 1996.
The Mayor attributed the reduction in overtime for regular operations to management initiatives implemented by his administration and to agency overtime control efforts that ensued. "In September 1994, I issued a directive to the heads of City agencies that defined their responsibilities for planning and controlling overtime, and for monitoring spending patterns and justifying increases in monthly reports to my Budget and Operations offices," he said.
Mayor Giuliani continued, "I am pleased that as a result of our combined efforts, not only has the cost of overtime for regular agency operations decreased by 12% for the last two years, but total City overtime for Fiscal 1996 was nine percent below Fiscal 1994 expenditures in this category, compared with the four percent decrease in full-time headcount during this two-year period. This shows clearly that overtime has not been used to offset reductions in employees, and that agencies have met and exceeded anticipated efficiency gains in their efforts to do more with less."
Deputy Mayor for Operations Randy M. Mastro said, "I am pleased with the results of our efforts to control overtime, most particularly our decreased dependence on overtime for delivery of basic agency services. However, the Mayor and I agree that we should continue to reduce overtime levels because overtime costs add to the City's financial burden. In Fiscal 1997 agencies will continue to reduce overtime costs through the use of internal monitoring systems to identify and control the sources of overtime costs and ensure that overtime management policies and procedures are effectively applied."
The Mayor stressed that there has been a sharp decrease in the number of Medicolegal Investigators (MLIs) from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the Top 50 overtime earners, which reflects revised scheduling and payment practices implemented at that office. Last year, there were 12 MLIs in the Top 50, including all of the top 10, the 14th and 16th highest earners. In Fiscal 1996, there are seven MLIs in the entire Top 50, with the highest ranked ninth, and the others ranked 10th, 13-14-15th, 17th, and 49th. Overall overtime expenses for these employees decreased 35 percent in Fiscal 1996.
The Mayor said that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has been designated as one of the intense overtime-using agencies and they will be closely monitored on a monthly basis by the Office of Operations and the Office of Management and Budget in Fiscal 1997. These two agencies replace the departments of Homeless Services and Juvenile Justice, which significantly reduced overtime earnings through improved management in Fiscal 1996, among the monitored agencies.
Overtime earnings decreased significantly at three monitored agencies in Fiscal 1996: the departments of Correction, Juvenile Justice, and Homeless Services. Fiscal 1996 overtime earnings at six--the Sanitation, Environmental Protection, Police, Fire, Transportation and Environmental Protection departments, and the Health and Hospitals Corporation--increased less than 15 percent.
The uniformed agencies (Police, Fire, Correction, Sanitation) spent $344.9 million in total overtime in Fiscal 1996, compared with $330.5 million in Fiscal 1995, which, Mayor Giuliani noted, was stable. Not including overtime for snow ($30.9 million) and the two large special events ($8.0 million), uniformed agencies used $306.0 million in overtime for regular operations in Fiscal 1996, a decrease of $20.9 million, or 6 percent, from the $326.9 million spent for this purpose the previous year, when $3.6 million was used for snow operations.
The Mayor concluded with a challenge to his commissioners to effectively implement overtime control plans. He said, "Agency heads will be held accountable for continuing to focus on internal overtime planning, holding managers and supervisors accountable for adherence to plan, and identifying and eradicating causes of overspending. I intend to see that the heads of all City agencies build upon their efforts of the past year to improve management of overtime and further reduce its usage in Fiscal 1997."