RivCo Agencies Struggle To Keep A Lid On OT Costs, Report Finds

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Most Riverside County public safety agencies, along with the county hospital and Registrar of Voters office, were unable to hold down overtime costs in the 2015-16 fiscal year, according to a report submitted Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors.

Auditor-Controller Paul Angulo and his staff examined the books of eight agencies as part of an annual audit of OT expenses that began in 2013.

Of the departments that received scrutiny, only three were able to lower their extra time outgo in 2015-16, compared to 2014-15 -- the Riverside County Department of Information Technology, the Department of Public Social Services and the Sheriff's Department, Angulo said.

IT recorded the largest cutback in OT -- 24 percent, while DPSS slashed outlays by 10 percent, and the sheriff shaved extra expenses by 4 percent year- to-year, according to the report.

The sheriff's budget is the largest of all county agencies, with a total $555.3 million in labor expenses during the 2015-16 fiscal year.

In the public safety realm, the District Attorney's Office and the Fire and Probation departments were unsuccessful in capping overtime costs between the two fiscal years.

The report stated that the D.A.'s office experienced a 38 percent jump in OT bills, while probation's were up 31 percent and fire's up 2 percent.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin and his staff attributed the $1.7 million in increased expenses to "severely limited resources" stemming from budget constraints, including a freeze on existing personnel to cope with an ongoing structural budget deficit, leaving little choice but to ask employees to put in longer hours.

Chief Probation Officer Mark Hake said the $2.13 million in OT his agency paid out resulted from staffing shortages and emphasized that a high percentage of payments, particularly for field officers, were covered by grants.

Fire Chief John Hawkins also laid the blame for elevated overtime on inadequate personnel to fill gaps, but said that the issue had already been addressed since the end of the last fiscal year.

The Riverside County University Health System's units, including the medical center in Moreno Valley, expended $17.7 million in OT in 2015-16. That sum was up roughly $2.2 million compared to 2014-15.

The health system's chief executive officer, Zareh Sarrafian, pointed to increased use of behavioral health specialists, mainly psychiatrists, as well as other medical professionals needed to service the county's five detention facilities as the main culprit behind enlarged OT costs.

The Office of the Registrar of Voters' overtime outlays nearly doubled in 2015-16, rising from $255,064 to $496,256, according to the report.

Registrar Rebecca Spencer said "more voters and more elections" caused OT expenses to spike.

"The Registrar of Voters goes from a staff of 34 to a staff of 400 during the presidential election cycle," Spencer said. "We also have to recruit approximately 3,500 poll workers."

— By City News Service / Image via Shutterstock