BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Overtime pay for top commissioners and appointees in Erie County has been the subject of outrage by taxpayers since shortly after the pandemic began.
Just two months into office and Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick is
proposing policy changes. "I tried to take some of the emotion and outrage
out of it, and take a more rational look at it," said Hardwick. "This is not about personalities. It's not about politics. It's about policy," he said.
Allowances for OT came after the October Surprise Storm of 2006. The Giambra Administration said managerial confidential appointees could get overtime during emergencies, which usually meant blizzards.
Fast forward to the pandemic in 2020, and that brought an extended
emergency period. "Many managerial confidential employees racked up a lot
of overtime," added Hardwick.
According to The Buffalo News, "Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein received more than $282,000 in overtime-related pay and buyouts for 2020 and 2021, making her the highest paid employee in county government."
Burstein was not alone. While she may have been the highest paid county employee, Sheriff's Office officials also received substantial overtime pay.
About a year ago, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tried to mitigate some of the problems by allowing this group of employees to accumulate 200 hours of compensatory time. At the end of the year, 80 of the 200 hours of comp time would roll into the next year and the employees could cash out the rest.
"The county executive's policy tried to kill two birds with one stone," said Hardwick. "There was the problem of all this overtime racking up, and someone had dusted off the Fair Labor Standards Act and found that these employees, who we thought were salaried, were actually hourly employees because they "swipe-in" and "swipe-out" at work. The Fair Labor Standards Act says you must pay these workers overtime."
Hardwick, in his first major report to the Erie County Legislature, recommends, if nothing else, that the policy at least be reviewed and possible changes considered.
"I recommend that the county recommend making at least some of these employees, commissioners and deputy commissioners, true salaried employees, rather than hourly employees."
With the move, Hardwick says any of the employees making over $49K per year, would not be eligible for overtime anymore.
He also thinks this would be an opportunity to look at salaries, because some of them, not all, may be underpaid, given their duties and given what other people are getting paid in the public and private sector.
Hardwick is suggesting assembling a citizen salary review commission to look at the salaries. "We've got a breather now. The state of emergency is over. The pandemic has subsided. Now is the time we can all sit around and talk about what we should do. These are decisions that should be made by the County Legislature and County Executive," he added.
