Overtime presents problem for Troy's new budget

In Charles Evans’ first official meeting back as Troy’s City Attorney, it ultimately wasn’t necessary for him to be there.

Evans waited patiently for someone to call his number, and when it came, it was on minutiae of statutes to approve the budget’s timeline and which version of the codebook was on Troy’s Website.

Most of the meeting revolved around Mayor Tony Brown’s crusade against unnecessary overtime. They city of Troy is paying between $80,000-$90,000 a year in overtime to city employees.

That doesn’t sit right with Brown, and he believes the city could save money by hiring another employee and tightening slack around city crews.

“I’ve thought about hiring a part-time city manager,” Brown said. “He would come in at 7 a.m., do the dam inspection and line up projects for the city crews.”

Brown’s thoughts are that with a city manager to set up projects, there would be less downtime for crews, which may not start city projects until 10 a.m. A qualified candidate for this position would command at least a $30/hr pay rate, but Brown’s preliminary idea would give this city manager position 20 hours a week, enough to qualify for benefits like health insurance.

“If this position saves 90 percent of overtime,” Councilman Phil Fisher said. “The $45,000 a year could still save near $30,000.” 

When asked whether he saw problems with getting a qualified individual to take this job for only 20 hours a week, Brown was adamant.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I think there are several people who would do a good job already in town.”

No matter the method, the entire Council seemed to agree that the amount paid out in overtime was a concern. Councilwoman Fran McCully thought a renegotiation of union daily start times might be a good start. Councilman Joe Arts thought the two city employees doing the twice a day dam inspections were one too many.

“We need to stipulate one person doing the inspections,” Arts said.

The council discussed the current way to get time-and-a-half, which comes only after 40 hours worked. Sick time and vacation do not add up to those 40.

Although city crews do take a large percentage of the overtime, the Police Department, with three officers to do weekly rounds, takes a chunk of that, too. Brown had been in talks with Police Chief Robert McLeod to find a solution.

McLeod could not be reached for comment.