The City of Pensacola Finance Department finally uploaded the July 2016 financial reports to the city’s website. Once again, the “current approved budget” line items were manipulated to hide how overtime paid at the Fire Department is over the budget.
Here is how the Finance Department changed the approved budget:
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The new item added to the budget for the first time is “Fire Holiday Pay.” Inweekly checked last year’s line-item – “Fire Holiday Pay” never was used. If you add the “Fire Holiday Pay” for July $25,485 and OT for July $64,974, the actual overtime pay for the Fire Department was $90,459.
Under Chief David Allen, the overtime has been $66,849 in May, $54,609 in June, and now $90,459 for July.
Last year under Chief Matt Schmitt, the overtime for July (with no break out for holiday pay) was $47,615. The OT for July is up 90 percent from July 2015!
The original budget passed by the Pensacola City Council in September 2015 had only $298,900 allocated for OT in the Fire Department.