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Sergeant's excess overtime shows need for oversight© St. Petersburg Times published October 11, 2002 Earlier this year, Sheriff Bob White cautioned of a shortage of corrections officers at the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes. So much so, that White and county administrators agreed to meet to devise a suitable staffing plan. White's warning concerned future personnel. He wants as many as 30 additional officers at the jail. But White didn't know that his notice corresponded with a pension-padding opportunity for at least one sheriff's sergeant who worked nearly 300 hours of overtime at the jail during a six-week period. Like White, Sgt. Wendell Everett was worried about the future -- his own. As detailed by Times staff writer Ryan Davis, Everett's short-term work ethic earned him more than $10,000 in additional income over six weeks and could add as much as $1,650 to his yearly income upon retirement. We don't fault Everett's opportunistic approach to law enforcement. It is common to work overtime in order to boost annual earnings to trigger richer retirement benefits. Oversight, though, was lacking, particularly at a time the agency lamented a financial crunch so severe it eliminated overtime pay because of unanticipated health insurance costs. How did supervisors allow the apparently inexhaustible Everett to work an average of 47 hours a week in overtime at the jail in addition to his average 42.5-hour work week on patrol? Everett shouldn't have been there at all. He isn't certified as a corrections officer. His early career training as a jail guard in the 1970s is no longer valid. More importantly, how could Everett be paid for working at the jail and as a road patrol sergeant at exactly the same time? Payroll records indicate Everett was paid for a six-hour period on June 19 for working simultaneously at the jail and on patrol. That's a neat trick. Hiring a few more deputies who can be in two places at once will solve White's jail staffing shortage. The Sheriff's Office general orders prohibit employees from working more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period. The sergeant's time cards indicate he exceeded that amount at least seven times and once reported working 30 consecutive hours. It's at least the third recent instance of the agency employees ignoring or not knowing the content of the department's general orders. Obviously, remedial work is in order. And Everett didn't earn corrections officer pay for his moonlighting. He received time-and-a-half of his sergeant's salary for every hour he worked at the jail, a rate 67 percent higher than the overtime rate of a first-year corrections officer. He isn't alone. The Sheriff's Office is now reviewing payroll records for four other sergeants who worked overtime at the jail. Much of the overtime opportunities came because of a shortage of corrections officers. At one time, the jail had 22 vacancies. The turnover is symptomatic of many agencies. Even though the County Commission agreed in 1999 to boost the pay scale at the jail to equalize the salaries of corrections officers and patrol deputies, the jail remains a less desirable work assignment than road patrol. The agency can argue it is cheaper to pay higher hourly rates to current supervisory employees than it is to hire, train and pay benefits to new, lower-wage employees. Regardless, the abuse of the agency's own payroll rules is indicative of personnel, including supervisors, unfamiliar with the department's performance expectations.
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial |
