In a television interview on July 19, Pensacola Fire Chief David Allen defended his sharp increase in overtime as being cyclical.
“It tends to happen, throughout my career that there’s these cycles where there’ll be a large amount of overtime, then it’ll drop down,” he told a WKRG reporter.
“They create vacancies, and instead of just being one vacancy every few months, they tend to come in groups of 5-10 vacancies, and therefore our overtime budget goes up while we’re promoting and hiring to fill the vacancies.”
Inweekly requested the list of firefighters who were hired and those who separated from the city from Jan. 1 through May 31.
Excluding the terminations of Fire Chief Matt Schmitt and Deputy Chief Joe Glover, the Pensacola Fire Department lost seven men since the first of the year. Three firefighters were hired.
As per May 31 financial reports, the Pensacola Fire Department this fiscal year has spent $391,962 on overtime, nearly $100K more than the original OT budget of $298,900. From February-May 2016, Chief Allen approved $137,313 in overtime.
In January, PFD hired one firefighter, according to the public records given the newspaper. The following month, two firefighters separated from the city. The overtime for February was $24,750.
In March, two firefighters left by March 3. No one was added, and the overtime went down to $20,112, even though net impact on the fire department was three fewer firefighters for the quarter.
In April, three more firefighters left — separation dates were April 8, April 17, and April 27. Overtime creeped back up to $25,602.
In May, two firefighters were added on May 10, and no one left the department. The overtime jumped to $66,849, nearly as much as the three prior months combined.
The facts appear to belie Chief Allen’s explanation.
Former Deputy Fire Chief Glover told Inweekly that overtime hours had to be justified. He and Schmitt were under constant pressure to stay within budget. A 161-percent, one-month jump in overtime would have required approval from City Hall.
