Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The days of high ranking department heads and top appointees receiving overtime pay in Erie County may be numbered.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz's budget proposal for next year
will re-classify department heads and deputies as salaried, making
them overtime-ineligible, according to The Buffalo News. This follows a lot of scrutiny about overtime during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was something that Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick suggested the county look into, shortly after he took office in January.
"I welcome it," Hardwick said on WBEN Friday morning. "I think the County Executive is wise to tie it to the budget. I'm not sure that the proposal he made is going to be the one that is enacted. But tying it to the budget puts a deadline on it. It's going to force the legislature's hand," he said.
Almost every other county in New York State has high ranking managerial confidential employees as salaried employees, not eligible for overtime.
In Erie County, the only employees considered salaried are elected officials.
Every other employee, including commissioners, are considered hourly employees and under the Fair Labor Standards Act, meaning they are eligible for overtime.
The issue follows years of criticism about the millions of dollars of overtime pay to top administrators, most notably County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein during the pandemic.
Burstein has been paid a combined total of $336,148 in overtime and comp time for 2020 and 2021. Those overtime payments were in addition to her base salary of over $200,000, the most overtime pay of any county employee in 2020.
Hardwick was asked why the change is being considered now. "I think that the former Comptroller (Stefan Mychajliw) drew attention to the issue. I continued it when I took office. And I also think there is a straw that breaks the camel's back. Everyone realized that this was something that we had to address," he added.
Was the straw in this case, Dr Burstein? "I'm not sure that it was," answered Hardwick. "That certainly was on the radar last year. She has not collected any overtime this year."
The lion's share of the overtime, is in the sheriff's office. A lot of the overtime is for events at Bills stadium and Keybank Center. Deputies direct traffic and provide security which is unique to that department.
Hardwick is also quick to point out that in terms of managerial confidential employees in the sheriff's department, a lot of the overtime is accumulated by high ranking employees who are not on the front lines on a daily basis. Hardwick said they are often in a back office or have administrative duties and are getting overtime. "That's a concern," he added.
The Legislature would have the final say on the overtime policy that the administration is proposing.
Any changes would take effect in January.