The Chattanooga Police Department was over budget by about $1.3 million for the last fiscal year, in part because of rising fuel costs.

But some of that money was spent paying overtime wages to officers and civilians who work for the department, Deputy Chief Mark Rawlston said.

Each year, the City Council allots $722,000 for the department’s budget to pay for overtime. Chief Rawlston said he knows before each year that he will spend at least $1 million paying overtime.

“I’m in the hole before the first late call,” he said.

The department started the new fiscal year, which began July 1, much the same way it finished the last — with thousands of hours of overtime.

In July employees racked up about 1,300 hours of overtime for everything from court-related events to officers staying late on calls, Chief Rawlston said.

“There are events that happen and things that happen that you have to throw overtime at,” he said. “Late calls occur, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. Events happen in the city that take extra people.”

For July, the department paid out $88,000 in overtime. If the pay-out continues at that rate — a typical monthly average — the department will spend an estimated $1,056,000 on overtime for the year, Chief Rawlston said.

Money can be moved from different areas of the department’s budget to compensate for overtime overages, he said.

The police department budget is roughly $43 million. Of that, about $38 million is allocated for salaries and benefits, leaving $4 million to $6 million for fleet costs, overtime pay, electricity, building maintenance, supplies and training.

For the most part, those in Mayor Ron Littlefield’s office have not complained about the overtime pay because they understand the need for safety, Chief Rawlston said.

City Chief Financial Officer Daisy Madison said city officials already have spoken with the police about ways to reduce spending in this fiscal year. The department is not over budget every year because it usually can move money from personnel expenses — which it gains by leaving vacancies open — to pay for items that frequently increase in price, such as fuel and fleet expenses, she said.

This past fiscal year, the police department filled more vacancies than in the past, leaving little money to move to other areas, Ms. Madison said. One of the ways she suggested for the department to save money this year would be not to hire as many employees.

When a department spends more than budgeted, money is moved from other areas of the city’s general fund, she said.

“We will reallocate from other departments that were underbudget to cover their excess,” she said.

She did not specify what those departments were.

The police department also overspent for consultant fees (over by about $44,000), medical supplies (over by about $4,400), alarm system repair (over by about $8,000) and Internet cable service (over by about $40,000), according to the expenditure report from the city.

The overages for consultant fees occurred because the department needed to pay for consultants to work with officers for their recertification and advancement, the department’s fiscal analyst Mike Evans said. The department typically has consultants once every three or four years and had not anticipated using them this fiscal year, he said.

The Internet cable services increased because the department added more cables in its annex to help with special investigations, which it also had not planned on doing, Mr. Evans said.

“Our budget in total is an amount, but the line items are generally something you can realign where you can fill in where the holes and gaps are,” he said.

The police department remains conscious of its spending and is attempting to save costs wherever it can, he said. That includes recycling chairs, three-ring binders, file cabinets and folders, among other things, he said. Other items can’t be cut to save costs, Mr. Evans said.

“Our things are costs for the safety of officers and citizens,” he said. “That’s where we don’t get choosy.”

Comments