by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Overtime hours being racked up in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Corrections Department and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue could result in the City being $11.4 million over budget in that line-item alone by the end of the fiscal year.
Those projects were in the Office of the Council Auditor’s first quarterly report.
“It (overtime) seems to be growing, which concerns us,” said Council Auditor Kirk Sherman, adding that while much of the overtime is within JSO and JFRD, the rest is “all over the place.
“JSO tends to have a large amount of overtime. A big part of that is in Corrections. It’s a tough job and they spread real thin. Some of those folks work a lot of overtime. In Fire and Rescue, it just seems to be part of the system. It all adds up.”
According to the report, during the first quarter of the fiscal year — Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2006 — the amount the City paid to employees in overtime was $8,485,524. That figure annualizes to $33,942,096, which exceeds the City’s overtime budget of $22,538,218 by $11,403,878.
Sherman said JSO will present its operation efficiency audit to the City Council Finance Committee at the mid-year budget review meeting. That audit, Sherman says, should contain ways JSO could trim some of its overtime costs.
“That should help,” he said.
Cheryl Runyon is an assistant management improvement officer with JSO who focuses on the JSO budget. She said JSO is well-aware of the overtime issue, especially concerning the Corrections Department.
“Those are station-filled position. If they are vacant, someone will work overtime,” said Runyon, adding some of those overtime costs are offset. “We are saving from the salary and benefits we aren’t paying. Even though the overtime looks horrendous, we are making sure we cover it. Every pay day, I look at where we are and adjust hours so we don’t overspend. We monitor it very carefully.”
Runyon said JSO will work to make up for its overtime expenses to-date, but doing so in Corrections will be difficult.
“The inmate population far exceeds what it should be,” she said.
Sherman said his biggest concern about the overtime expenditures to date is the fact that through one-fourth of the year the City has exceeded one-third of its overtime budget for the entire year.
“Obviously, it will be a challenge this year,” he said, adding the $11.4 million could be made up, in part, by other areas of the City’s budget finishing the year below the predicted budget. “Some of the overtime could be covered by other things coming up short.”
Overall, the City’s budget looks good. If expenditures and revenues stay constant through the end of the year, Sherman is predicting a $9 million favorable variance. However, he cautions not to get too excited about that figure. Considering the City’s budget is about $900 million, a 1 percent favorable variance is better than a loss, but it’s still just a fraction of the budget.
“Revenues are above expectations and expenditures are below expectations,” he said.
One area the City is doing well in is taxes. According to the report, the City could finish the budget year with about a $6.3 million favorable variance, a figure attributed primarily to ad valorem taxes. That number is more likely to go up than down, said Sherman, due to the fact many of the property tax figures weren’t in by the time he compiled the report and Jacksonville’s solid real estate market doesn’t tend to cause much depreciation in the value of real estate, if any at all.
The City’s general fund is also showing a $9.9 million favorable variance thanks to a favorable variance in revenues of $7 million and expenditures $2.9 million below budget.
Others numbers from the report:
• JEA experienced an operating deficit of $720,350 during the first quarter and is projecting a negative budget variance of $834,090 for the year.
• There are no numbers available for the City’s entertainment venues. Last year, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and SMG integrated the management of those facilities. The report indicates any numbers from the first quarter may have been inaccurate, therefore financial figures will be available when the mid-year report comes out.
• Neither JTA, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority nor the Jacksonville Port Authority is experiencing any budgetary stress through the first quarter.