Joliet Fire Department OT: Can You Believe This Drop?

JOLIET, IL — Overtime expenses at the Joliet Fire Department have dropped in dramatic fashion, by $320,999 when comparing the first two months of 2018 and 2019, a Joliet Patch analysis found.

Last year was a controversial year for the Joliet Fire Department, which is led by longtime Fire Chief Joe Formhals. At one point, Mayor Bob O'Dekirk suggested that a number of Joliet firefighters appeared to be involved in a scheme to drive up their overtime pay by taking turns phoning in sick.

Meanwhile, several veteran Joliet firefighters/paramedics subsequently complained that Joliet's Fire Stations were inadequately staffed and once the city hired more staff, overtime pay would greatly diminish.

Former Joliet City Manager David Hales went along with the suggestions made by Joliet's fire unions, Local 44 and Local 2369. Hales approved the hiring of several new firefighter/paramedics, but the overtime pay still remained sky high as the year progressed.

In October, Joliet negotiated a settlement to get rid of Hales after less than one year as city manager. He previously ran Bloomington. His replacement, interim city manager Marty Shanahan, has taken a no-nonsense approach that seems to be working and saving Joliet taxpayers thousands of dollars in 2019.

Joliet Patch filed Freedom of Information Act requests to the city of Joliet to obtain the overtime costs for January and also February.

For Joliet taxpayers, the trend is welcome news and it shows that their leaders at City Hall, namely Shanahan, aren't just providing lip service at City Council meetings.

"I'm pleased to see that through the first two months that they are in line with their budget," Shanahan told Joliet Patch during an interview Monday.

According to city financial records, the Joliet Fire Department racked up $317,682 in overtime costs in January 2018 when Hales ran the city. This January, the Joliet Fire Department's overtime dropped to $125,296 — a decrease of $192,386.

In February 2018, Joliet Fire racked up $230,739 in overtime expenses. Last month, February 2019, Joliet Fire's overtime expenses dropped to $102,126.

To put the numbers in perspective, the Joliet Fire Department had amassed $548,421 in total overtime pay for January and February 2018. So far, Joliet's Fire Department had $227,422 in total overtime pay for the first two months of 2019.

In December as Joliet's City Council was deliberating budgets, the recommendation called for an overtime budget of $2.3 million for the Joliet Fire Department. However, Shanahan made a last-minute suggestion, trimming the overtime budget by $800,000 to $1.5 million.

Shanahan reminded the council that the Joliet Fire Department was now at its highest staffing levels in recent years. He analyzed the department's overtime costs for the previous three years when the department's staffing was at optimum levels. The overtime totals averaged $1.5 million, he explained.

If the current trend continues, the Joliet Fire Department and Fire Chief Formhals stand to make City Hall extremely happy as well as the city's taxpayers.

At its current pace, the Joliet Fire Department will come in below the $1.5 million total designated for 2019 overtime costs.