Claremore Daily Progress

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July 12, 2012

Sanitation workers clean up with overtime pay

Salesha Wilken Staff Reporter

CLAREMORE — Some citizens are questioning  overtime for Claremore’s sanitation workers after recent budget reports showed a spike in the department’s payroll levels.

Overtime for 2011 exceeded $25,000 for management, not including other workers in the department.
Claremore’s sanitation department   is a six-day a week operation, according to city officials.
Due to a shortage of employees and equipment, overtime pay had reached higher levels than in previous years, according to officials
The numbers have had some city council members asking questions during recent meetings.
The council sought answers and  an explanation of the unusually high amounts.
Additionally, councilors asked for city management to find a solution for employee down time during trips to dump the trucks.
Sanitation managers Donald Burgess and Darryl Simon have been receiving the majority of the overtime pay.
Burgess and Simon have been working most Saturday’s to oversee the commercial pickup for  Claremore, according to city officials.
This is in addition to working a normally scheduled 40-hour week Monday thru Friday.
Between the two employees, more than $50,000 in overtime has been paid in the last two fiscal years.
In 2011, Burgess clocked 542 overtime hours and Simon reported 446 hours.
Burgess has claimed as much as 34 hours of overtime in a single pay period. This is in addition to the normal 80 hours he would have worked for the two weeks. This equaled approximately $1,000 in pay for that time period alone. High employee turnover may have played a role in the numbers, according to city officials.
Simon has claimed up to 29 hours in one pay period equaling an additional $748.42 for that two-week pay period.
The majority of the other sanitation department employees have not claimed more than 16 hours in one pay period.
The 16 hours would be appropriate for someone covering two additional Saturdays scheduled at eight hours per day.
Most of the employees under the supervisors only reported eight hours or less in one pay period.
The managers are also paid hourly unlike the majority of department heads for the city of Claremore. Most department managers are salaried and do not receive overtime wages, according to city officials. 
Burgess earned approximately $17,566 in overtime in addition to the $50,866 base pay he currently receives. This totals to $68,433 for 2012.
Simon earned approximately $11,315 in overtime in addition to the $39,896 base pay he currently receives, totaling $51,211.
City administration is working to remedy the overtime after the city council brought the matter to light.
“We did budget for two new trucks in this fiscal year, one side-arm and one roll-off.  We will be purchasing those soon.  We are planning to keep one of the old trucks as well, so that when we have one in the shop receiving maintenance, we can use that backup truck to save from using overtime,” said Cassie Woods, communication director.
Woods also noted that the city hired an additional employee, bringing the total staff in that department to 13.  
This should help control overtime as well, she said.  
The city did not budget any additional monies for overtime this year and officials plan to see a decrease in that line item, according to Woods.
Burgess and Simon, as well as other sanitation workers, have been asked to use flextime to compensate for scheduling. Employees that work on Saturday will now be required to take off a different shift throughout the week to keep the work schedule to a 40-hour week, according to city officials.

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