The City of Pensacola finally released the Monthly Line-item Financial Statement for June 2016. Once again, the overtime expenditures of the Pensacola Fire Department, $54,609, were over the monthly budget allocation. In fact, the department appears to be on pace to break its record for OT spending since Mayor Ashton Hayward took office.
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At first glance, it appears PFD only has $2,091.79 remaining in its OT budget to cover July-September 2016. However, then we noticed the budget was changed from $439,894.00 on the May report to $448,663.00 in the June report. Had the budget not been changed, the Pensacola Fire Department would have been exceeded its Overtime budget by $6,677.
This table shows how the Fire OT budget has been gradually increased each month. This begs the question: how can you measure performance against budget when the budget numbers are constantly changing?
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Last year, Mayor Ashton Hayward proposed, and the Pensacola City Council approved, a budget for this fiscal year that had $298,900 for overtime for the Pensacola Fire Department. Through June 30, 2016, the Pensacola Fire Department has exceeded that original budget by 149 percent.
What other manipulations are going on in the city’s finance department?
The monthly financial reports are available here.
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BTW: Mayor Hayward has only budgeted $298,900 for Overtime for the Pensacola Fire Department for FY 2017, even though the city has exceeded that figure every year.
Here are the actual overtime expenditures for the Pensacola Fire Department by fiscal years:
FY 2012: $419,874
FY 2013: $377,815
FY 2014: $452,103
FY 2015: $435,480
FY 2016: $446,571 —only for nine months
How can Mayor Hayward justify only budgeting $298,900 again?