North Las Vegas Fire Department burning through OT budget

By Aida Ahmed

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 | 10:24 p.m.

The North Las Vegas Fire Department is burning through its overtime budget, but Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Brame says there is no way around it.

At a special meeting Wednesday Brame told the city council that the city's reduction in staff has forced firefighters to cover missing shifts with overtime pay.

“The city chose to not fill positions and we opened a fire station without additional staffing,” said Brame, who added that since September the department has lost 15 employees and continued brownouts throughout the department since July 1. “The only way we can provide services is to hire overtime.”

In the 2011 fiscal year the fire department spent 222 percent of its allocated overtime budget totaling more than a $1.8 million overage. The police department and corrections officers also surpassed their overtime budgets but stayed in their overall department budgets.

Finance director Al Noyola said the fire department has used almost 80 percent of the 2012 fiscal year's budget in just a few months but the city's overall overtime spending has been cut 63 percent since 2010, largely in part due to staff layoffs.

The decline in overtime spending came after a city council meeting in December 2009 where the council decided to reduce citywide overtime by up to 50 percent and a minimum of 25 percent. Noyola said the city has accomplished that goal.

Councilwoman Anita Wood said the budget disparity called for a look at how overtime hours were being used and if there was a way to decrease overtime payout.

“The question becomes different scheduling, maybe (we) need to sit down with the unions,” Wood said.

City Manager Tim Hacker said in order for the cost of the fire department's overtime to decrease the city would have to make dramatic changes to operations.

“It really comes down to the fact that we are understaffed,” said Mayor Shari Buck. “We’re down in the police department and fire department and when you’re down and having to pay overtime then that discussion needs to be whether it makes sense to go back and hire for those positions.”

Currently the department has 156 members in its operational staff with 27 positions vacated because of the city‚s hiring freeze, according to Brame.

The average salary with benefits for a North Las Vegas fire fighter ranges from $101,540 to $137,813 depending on rank. Brame added that the average North Las Vegas fire fighter works a 56-hour work week.