BUFFALO (WBEN) - The issue of overtime for Erie County's Health Commissioner has been widely reported in recent months and scrutinized by public officials, including the Erie County Comptroller's office.
A report this week in the Buffalo News indicates Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein is the highest paid official in county government due to overtime accumulated throughout the course of the pandemic.
The report indicates that Burstein collected $183,414 in overtime in 2020, and $86,484 in overtime through the first three quarters of this year, in addition to her base pay of roughly $209,000.
Burstein, however, isn't alone. While she may be the highest paid county employee, Sheriff's Office officials have also received substantial overtime pay.
Per the Buffalo News article: "While Burstein is the single-largest beneficiary of the Covid-19 overtime allowance, Erie County Sheriff's Office appointees have received the greatest overtime benefits, as a group. Nine out of the county's top 10 overtime payments to appointees went to Sheriff's Office officials."
WBEN spoke with Comptroller-Elect Kevin Hardwick, and he was asked if he understands some of the frustration from county residents regarding these high overtime figures.
"Absolutely - that's a lot of money, and certainly I'm envious of the amount of money that she's making there," Hardwick began. "However, when you consider that the lion's share of it, the vast majority of it, was during the first few months of the year when the pandemic was still going strong, when people were dying every day, when most people had not been vaccinated yet, you begin to understand it.
"I still think that this is a problem that, once things settle down, we need to address not only in the Health Department, but in the Sheriff's Department, and for that matter, all county departments where a lot of overtime has been racked up," he continued.
Hardwick explained that the only county employees who are salaried are elected officials, and he was asked how he, as future comptroller, would go about addressing some of these overtime concerns.
"I think we need to continue to examine the overtime that's being accumulated, not only in the Health Department, but other departments, including the independent electeds like the Sheriff's Department," he said. "We can make recommendations to the executive and to the legislature as to where we go going forward."
