Clearwater mistakenly paid overtime to fire chiefs
By Mike Brassfield, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, January 30, 2010
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CLEARWATER — Over the past two years, a dozen assistant and division fire chiefs billed the city of Clearwater for nearly $75,000 in overtime they were not entitled to, according to a city audit released Friday.
Officials say this was not an intentional scam, but instead happened because the Fire Department misunderstood the city's salary policies.
Assistant and division chiefs with the Clearwater Fire Department are salaried employees. But unlike most salaried workers, they are also paid for what the department calls "comp time" for some of the extra hours.
City policy says they are to be paid for comp time only if they're filling in for another assistant chief. However, the Fire Department mistakenly allowed them to claim time for performing other tasks, such as responding to incidents, investigating fire scenes, teaching hazardous materials classes and servicing firefighters' air packs.
For instance, division Chief Richard Riley, who earns $80,670 a year, billed the city for $21,760 of comp time in 2008 and $19,175 in 2009, according to city records. Assistant Chief Danny Jones, who earns $69,000 a year, billed the city for nearly $23,000 of comp time in 2008 and $19,650 in 2009.
In 2008, a dozen Fire Department managers earned $94,000 in comp time, which they got paid in a lump sum at the end of the year. But nearly $39,000 of that shouldn't have been paid, the audit found.
In 2009, those same managers racked up another $82,000 in comp time, but they were not eligible for about $35,000 of it.
However, they haven't been paid yet for the $47,000 in comp time they earned legitimately in 2009 under Clearwater's rules. Those end-of-the-year payments were delayed due to this audit. For that reason, these assistant chiefs won't have to pay back much money. In most cases, the city still owes them more money than they owe the city.
"We have adjusted what they were due in 2009," city auditor Robin Gomez said.
Out of the 12 managers, one assistant chief owes Clearwater $3,314 and another owes $1,944.
The audit started after the city got an anonymous complaint.
The local fire union, which has been at odds with city management over pay and other issues, is not taking a position on this matter. But union president Gerard Devivo said: "That's ridiculous. Just as a citizen of Clearwater, it blows my mind that they're getting that much comp time."
City Manager Bill Horne defended the practice of paying assistant chiefs for extra time. He says the city saves money by having them do things like service air packs or train firefighters.
"It costs us three times as much to outsource these things when the chiefs can do it cheaper," Horne said.
Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4160.
[Last modified: Jan 29, 2010 09:11 PM]
