Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - High-ranking, salaried administrators have cashed in on overtime pay during the Coronavirus crisis.
A report issued by Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw shows that political appointees in the County made $825,039 in overtime pay during the 18-weeks of Coronavirus crisis work.
That includes $441,655 in pay to the Erie County Sheriff's office, and $83,996 in overtime payments to Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein. Out of the 54 employees listed in the overtime pay report, only three, including Burstein, work in the Health Department.
The County Executive and other elected officials can not receive overtime.
"We really need to do a deep dive into what was going on - my initial reaction is that I'm shocked," said Republican Erie County Legislator Joe Lorigo. "It's not as if any of these people aren't paid well - for example - the health commissioner's base salary for 2020 is over $207,000 a year, and overtime at $90,000 over three months is a lot.
"I'm sure that Dr. Burstein did a ton of work dealing with the pandemic, but we need to look at everybody from the top down to see exactly what was being done and whether or not there was anyone that might have been abusing the overtime system," he continued.
"I think it's something that we will be looking into further," he began. "The comptroller just issued a report - he clocked it in I think at 4:59 last night, and we haven't had a chance to look at it given the gravity of everything we're talking about today. We'll be looking at that, and I think more investigation has to be done.
"There was reason for a lot of this overtime on the part of salaried employees, and because of the declaration of emergency, they can be paid," Hardwick continued. "We want to make sure, however, that opportunity was not exploited by individuals."
