http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/edi....

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Back when federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis restrained the FDNY from hiring new firefighters — as part of his campaign to impose personal oversight over its allegedly biased hiring practices — City Hall warned the decision would cost millions in overtime.

Now, as The Post’s David Seifman reports, the actual costs are even worse than originally thought.

Because Garaufis — who sees racism in virtually every action the FDNY undertakes — has vetoed any new hiring, the department is 450 firefighters below its authorized head count

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Back in 2009, the FDNY’s overtime tab for uniformed firefighters had dropped to a four-year low of $128 million.

In 2010, it spiked to $158 million. Last year, the total reached $198 million.

This year, the $200 million line is certain to be breached. (The department’s overtime bill for all employees is expected to hit $238 million.)

Bottom line: Garaufis’ judicial wrongheadedness will end up costing taxpayers at least $161 million in extra overtime alone

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Meanwhile, FDNY retirements have started going up — as some firefighters apparently are taking advantage of the OT bonanza to boost their pay and cash out, padding their taxpayer-funded pensions

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No worries, mate!

Our good buddy & former FDNY fire hero Tommie Westman has been scraping by on about $50,000 a year in FDNY pension loot since 2005.

Westman, Thomas G 8/4/2005 8/4/1985 $50,713.80 (2009)

I mean, it's a TRAVESTY that this poor hero has been getting only $25 an hour to do whatever he wants since he retired at age 41 (born 1964).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Westman

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Tom Westman (born January 4, 1964) was the $1,000,000 winner of the tenth season of the reality show Survivor, Survivor: Palau. Westman is a husband, father of three, and former firefighter. Westman has a deaf daughter. He announced his retirement from the department effective August 8, 2005. He plans to begin a career as a motivational speaker.

We don't have to worry about HIM collecting overtime...

Isn't it about time for the gov to be required to add a parentheses around anything that is a "cost of labor" and inside the parentheses include the "future obligation" from that "cost of labor"

Example from previous post:

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In 2010, it spiked to $158 million(future obligation cost goes here). Last year, the total reached $198 million(future obligation cost goes here).

It's everywhere ... http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/....

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The city of Columbus paid its workers a record $29.2 million in overtime last year — 15 percent more than in 2010, records show.

Paul Rakosky, Columbus’ finance director, said yesterday that although last year’s overtime payout ranked as the largest in the city’s history, it was a budgetary anomaly stemming from an expected flood of police retirements.

An analysis by WBNS-TV (Channel 10) confirmed that the biggest jump in overtime costs — 30 percent, year over year — occurred in the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Police, which accounted for 26 of the city’s top 50 overtime earners last year.

No. 1 on the list was a police dispatcher who added almost $86,000 in overtime pay to her base salary of $49,000. A burglary detective saw his annual compensation swell to about $132,000, thanks largely to overtime payments totaling $54,000.

Just google "dispatch firefighter overtime" and boatloads of cities/municipalities come up.

Just some more perks ...

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Public employees get “sweeteners” that are rare or nonexistent in the private sector.

As a result, the salaries of many firefighters, police officers, teachers and other public employees don’t reveal the full story. Pensions, health care, bonuses, sick-leave payouts, overtime, holidays and other perks boost take-home pay.

Here are some examples
• Columbus firefighters are among many public employees who get a day off for their birthday. They also get Election Day off and a half-day for the primary election.

• Bexley teachers have a clause in their contract about room temperature. They can ask to switch to a different classroom if it gets uncomfortable.

• Road department workers in Austintown Township get a $160 bonus for perfect attendance.

• State employees didn’t get a raise last year but received an average $2,960 each in “longevity pay.” That benefit is earned after five years of service, calculated as a percentage of salary, maxing out at 20 years of service. In 2010, the longevity payout for 38,748 employees cost taxpayers $114 million, according to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.

• School bus drivers aren’t well paid for the 4 to 5 hours a day they work, 180 days a year. But most districts offer them family health-care benefits. That can cost the district $16,000 a year and add $20 an hour to the cost for each employee paid by the district, contract negotiations expert Gary Johnson said.

Public-employee compensation overall far exceeds that of the private sector, said Matt Mayer, president of the conservative Buckeye Institute. Taxpayers are usually unaware of the “hidden benefits,” he said.

“It’s stuff that’s costing taxpayers,” Mayer added.

And in almost all cases, it was approved by government officials during contract negotiations over the years.

Longevity pay is one of several collective-bargaining benefits that would be eliminated if the law that resulted from Senate Bill 5 goes into effect. Voters will decide that through the state Issue 2 referendum vote on Nov. 8.

The question of what public employees earn also has been an issue in the debate. While average pay rates for most public-employee groups aren’t readily available, they are for teachers.

The average annual salary for an Ohio public-school teacher, not including bonuses and other stipends, is $58,248, Ohio Department of Education figures show. That varies widely by region of the state and by school district. Central Ohio teachers average $60,621, compared with $64,306 in Cuyahoga County and $48,039 in east-central Ohio counties.

Salaries for police and firefighters vary widely across the state.

Federal statistics from May 2010 showed the mean salary of police was $59,650 in Columbus, $59,550 in Cleveland, $40,940 in southern Ohio and $40,230 in Lima in northwestern Ohio’s Allen County.

In the same report, Cleveland firefighters’ mean salary was $48,510; Columbus, $45,990; Lima, $36,580; and southern Ohio, $33,730.

Some other sweeteners
Teachers in South-Western City Schools can receive a payout for up to 95 unused sick days when they retire. The average payout last year was $20,671. The new law would limit sick-leave payouts to 50 percent of accumulated hours, up to 1,000 hours.

Dayton police officers receive annual stipends for having college degrees: $400 for an associate’s, $800 for a bachelor’s and $1,200 for a graduate degree.

Police officers in Gahanna are eligible for an extra $50 if they proficiently speak one of seven foreign languages. They also get free false-arrest insurance and financial incentives for exceeding age-based physical-fitness standards.

Chillicothe police are eligible for $3,300 in annual hazardous-duty pay.

Columbus firefighters get $850 for uniform maintenance. Those required to wear plain clothes receive $1,400.

Cincinnati officials last year tried to remove a $900-a-year allowance for firefighter uniforms and the cost of using personal items and automobiles. A fact-finder declined to remove the provision, which costs the city $756,000.

Jeff Berding, a former Cincinnati councilman, said the allowance is no longer necessary because the city purchases most of what a firefighter needs. “My brother (a city firefighter) says it’s just free money,” he said.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/....

Ohioans voted down SB 5 (referenced in the article) last November. The unions got ahold of it and absolutely ran with it, crushing the pro-SB 5 contingent.

Absolutely none of this **** is going to stop.

It will stop. Just as soon as the account balance reads 0.

You mean your and my accounts, right?

Ohio defaulted on its loan from the Feds last month, the money it borrowed for unemployment payments. Who pays for that? We do. As a result, the "employer" contribution rate for unemployment "insurance" went up .3% across the board.

And the city in which we used to live is going out for an additional levy to cover police/fire pensions, even though it's supposed to be taken from the funds generated through the existing tax structure. You really think that levy's NOT going to pass? Particularly when all of the city's councilpersons publically endorse it?

THEIR accounts will never go dry. Eventually ours will.

I'm not real sure why anybody is surprised. The same or more work with fewer people is always going to = overtime.

I seriously doubt the overtime is as much as would be paid for new pensions and **** for new employees, so **** it.

My favorite example of this is Port Authority Transit in Pittsburgh.

Management and union workers in the late 1990's awarded themselves lavish pensions for working 20 years at the bus company. Some managers retired in their early 40's.

Officials outside the bus company caught onto the scam about 3 or 4 years ago when the bus company announced a need for big fare increases to cover their costs.

Now, wages and benefits have been cut for existing employees, pensions have been scaled back for those who haven't retired yet, and big fare increases and service decreases have been announced. At some point in the next few years, the bus company will simply go under, since they don't have any taxing authority.

So...what are they trying to do? They're trying to get the governor to keep feeding the pensioner dragon via the state transportation fund. They claim this is to 'keep public transit going', but it's really to feed the union.

Mo, as a resident of that area, they're STILL cutting back service. Slowly, but surely, people are getting up in arms about it.

PAT Transit claims that those routes aren't generating enough revenue to keep running them.

It's horse **** as far as I'm concerned. The places where the cuts are happening the residents there need it for transit.

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My favorite example of this is Port Authority Transit in Pittsburgh.

Mo I recall them going on strike while I was at Pitt - I learned they literally could not be fired; so I wondered at the time why not hold out for the most ridiculous bennies possible?

You get to hold the city hostage and there is nothing they can do about it. I want 1000 dollars an hour, and my own house on the moon.

And I do agree it will not stop until the whole shebang blows up.

It's happening to the privates as well.

http://www.jems.com/article/news/amr-giv....

The company wants them to take 25% pay cuts as well as reductions in their benefits