San Jose Fire Captain Made $482k Thanks To Spike In Overtime

By Tom Gantert | The Center Square, The Center Square California

March 5, 2023

(The Center Square) - A city of San Jose fire captain has made $1.25 million over the past three years, thanks to $706,699 in overtime he racked up from 2020-2022 making him the highest paid employee.

That fire captain made $482,051 in 2022, one of five city employees to make $400,000 or more that year.

Another fire captain made $460,712, a police lieutenant made 435,201 and a police sergeant made $400,332 in 2022. The city manager made $405,136 as the fourth-highest paid employee.

San Jose has seen the cost of public safety increase to a record $727.3 million in 2021-22. That was a 7.8% increase over public safety expenses in 2018 when factoring in inflation.

The city's audited financial reports show that the number of people on the payroll in the fire and police departments has been stable from 2020 to 2022.

The fire department had 794 employees on payroll in 2018 and the same number in 2020. That included full and part-time employees.

Thirty-five of the top 50 paid employees were from the police and fire department in 2022.

The city overtime in the fire department in 2022 was due to staffing shortages.

"The Fire Department maintains a minimum of 190 sworn personnel on duty to provide consistent service levels on a 24-hour basis across several ranks and specialties," said Demetria Machado, deputy public information officer for the city of San Jose. "Daily vacancies and/or absences are filled by overtime. Overtime opportunities are first offered to those availing themselves and meeting position qualifications and on the basis of lowest number of previous overtime works. Over the last fiscal year, the department has experienced staffing shortages and these individuals have voluntarily signed up for overtime shifts to maintain minimum staffing levels. In addition, some of the employees have unique qualifications required for them to work in Special Operations programs, making them part of a limited pool of personnel available to fill absences and vacancies within their respective specialties (Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF), Hazardous Incident Team (HIT) or Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) programs."

The focus of the work of The Center Square California is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.