Overtime cools under Holden's first budget

Holden said it's due to a focus on open dialogue.

"I've not put out any memo or anything saying no to overtime," said Holden. "But what we've done is to open up the budget process. I don't think it was much of a secret that in previous years department heads sent in their budget and that was it. Some didn't see the numbers until eight months into the fiscal year. Department heads deserve better than that."

The Dyersburg city government overtime budgets from 2002 to 2008. Information provided by city treasurer Steve Anderson.

Only two of the city's 12 departments have missed their respective overtime budgets three months before the fiscal year ends in July. For years prior, records show the proportion was almost the exact opposite, with most departments not hitting near their respective numbers.

Holden said quarterly budgets with all the city's department heads have opened up the budget work to detail line items.

Treasurer Steve Anderson brings his laptop computer to the meetings, said Holden, and can answer any question raised.

"Overtime is going to happen," said Holden. "But its important the department heads know they have to live within a budget."

The most egregious overtime miss is in the Emergency Communications Department, which records since 2002 note year after year, overtime more than double the amount budgeted. For the current fiscal year, the EOC overtime expense is at $28,416. The budgeted amount was $25,000. An analysis of EOC overtime since 2002 detail wild numbers - for 2005, 2006 and 2007, the actual expenses burned through the $5,000 budgeted more than nine times over.

In 2005, overtime was budgeted at $5,000, but $46,502.65 was spent. In 2004, $15,000 was budgeted; more than double, $30,382.23, was spent. The 2007 budget stuck with $5,000, but posted expenses of $44,411.82.

Anderson explained the issue plaguing the EOC overtime budget was chronic underbudgeting.

"We raised it a lot this year, but still not enough," said Anderson.

Currently one dispatcher is on maternity leave, which adds to the overtime crunch, "but we've addressed this problem by hiring a part-time dispatcher."

Anderson said the five-day July 2007 Dyersburg Fabrics blaze is the direct cause of the fire department overtime. Chief Bob Veal had crafted an austere 2006-2007 budget, dropping the planned overtime to its lowest level in eight years, at $26,000. The mill fire, however, pushed the overtime to $32,773.01 with three months left in the fiscal year. Firefighters from all shifts rotated on and off the fire scene for most of a week.

"Almost $11,000 of their overtime was incurred during the week of the Dyersburg Fabrics fire in July," said Anderson. "Nothing anyone could do about that."

On the other side of the overtime coin, the Water and Sewer Department budget has since 2002 never come close to running over the budget for overtime. In 2002, the overtime budget was set at $46,500; $29,315.93 was spent. The average difference in the department's overtime budget to what was spent from 2002 to 2007 was just over $10,000.

Holden said a hiring freeze initiated when he took office in January 2007 has helped hold the budget.

The city headcount had also fallen since then, from 358 to 320 full- and part-time workers.