DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG
There are new allegations of overtime abuse in the D.C. Fire and EMS
Department. It comes at a time when the city is strapped for cash.
One firefighter has earned more than $300,000 with the overtime he earned, more than three times his base salary.
Last year, 25 firefighters racked up more than a million dollars in overtime.
FOX
5 has found one person, a commanding officer, who has earned overtime
nearly every pay period in the last two years. The firefighter has
earned nearly $100,000 in overtime each year.
At times, Lt.
Richard Lehan has racked up 90 hours of overtime when others complain
they are getting very little. Documents show at least two other
firefighters earned $100,000 in overtime last year.
These documents obtained by FOX 5 show that since 2008, Lehan stands out as one of the top overtime earners in the department.
According
to payroll records, Lehan has worked nearly 2,500 hours in overtime
since 2009. It shows month after month, Lehan is averaging 45 hours of
overtime per pay period. Department policy dictates that there should be
no more than 36 hours overtime per pay period.
D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson wants accountability and says it is overtime abuse at its worst.
"I'm
going take that information to the Chief Financial Officer and ask why
those paychecks are being processed,” said Mendelson. “Some attention
has to be given to the supervisors who permitted the work to take place
and the supervisors who authorized the paycheck to be written. Frankly,
if it's egregious enough, some heads have to roll.”
Lehan
wouldn't comment on camera Monday about his overtime, but says he works
the hours given to him to support his five children and has done nothing
wrong.
Payroll records show he earned $153,000 in overtime over
the last two years. If you add that to his $89,000 a year firefighter
salary, his take-home pay for the last two years has been at least
$331,000.
Mendelson says this has to stop.
"This overtime
has been out of control. Management has not been managing the overtime
issue, so the overtime has been millions of dollars over the budget. So
we're doing it ourselves through the law. It's a crude way of doing it,"
said Mendelson.
Because the fire department policy wasn't
working, the D.C. Council imposed a new law last year. It says no
firefighter or officer can earn more than $20,000 in overtime.
However, documents show Lehan's overtime continues to exceed that amount even under the new law.
In
October, November and December, Lehan has again met or exceeded the
overtime limits, working 153 overtime hours in the last three months of
2010, earning him nearly $10,000.
On Monday night, the D.C Fire
and EMS Department could not say which supervisor or assistant chief
approved all the overtime or why it was approved, but issued a statement
saying the department has made changes and now uses overtime management
software called Telestaff.
"To reduce overtime, Telestaff
assists the department to better plan, distribute and manage OT through
improved work scheduling controls on a shift-by-shift basis," said D.C.
Fire and EMS spokesman Pete Piringer in a written statement.
The
only problem according to sources is that the person in charge of the
computerized Telestaff scheduling of overtime is Richard Lehan and his
firefighter brother, Eddie Lehan.
A fire department spokesman says of late that Lehan appears to be within the guidelines set forth by the D.C. Council.
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