Top overtime earners in Youngstown

These are the top overtime earners, their positions in Youngstown city government for 2023 and the amount they made just in overtime alone. Most are police employees.

• Edward Kenney, police detective sergeant $139,295.89

• Jerry J. Fulmer, police detective sergeant $88,972.01

• Frank Rutherford Jr., police lieutenant $88,540.16

• Mohammed Awad, police lieutenant $81,431.74

• Jason Simon, police captain $77,995.37

• Gerard Slattery, police lieutenant $77,256.13

• Brian Butler, police lieutenant $76,380.84

• Robert Neill, wastewater plant operator $68,066.23

• Christopher Staley, police detective sergeant $58,730.86

• Gregory Mullennex, police patrolman $58,605.13

• Ryan Laatsch, police detective sergeant $54,483.57

• John Patton, police detective sergeant, $53,500.84

• Julie Moreschi, wastewater plant operator $52,531.15

• Steven Gibson, police patrolman $51,410.41

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YOUNGSTOWN — Fourteen city workers, including 12 police officers, made more than $50,000 in overtime in 2023 with one receiving $139,295.89 — about two times his regular salary.

That officer, Detective Sgt. Edward Kenney, worked overtime six or seven days per week all year for a total of 2,612 hours, mostly at 1.5 times his salary though he had 90.5 hours at 1.75 times his salary on holidays, including 14 hours on Labor Day. Kenney made $70,105.62 in base pay. Between overtime and salary, Kenney made almost $210,000 in 2023.

Kenney worked more overtime hours than regular hours in 2023, averaging more than 50 hours of overtime per week. Like some other city police officers, particularly those of rank, Kenney worked when he was on vacation and received his vacation pay in addition to overtime.

Kenney often worked double overtime shifts on Saturdays and occasionally on Sundays.

Kenney was also No. 1 in overtime earnings in 2022, but that amount was $79,823.75.

Ranking officers — detective sergeants, captains and lieutenants — were the city’s top seven overtime earners in 2023 and 10 of the 14 in the city to receive at least $50,000 in overtime.

Between salary and overtime, each of those seven officers made more than $165,000 last year in income.

The overtime to the ranking officers was sharply criticized by two city council members — Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, and Anita Davis, D-6th Ward — who are both former city police detective sergeants.

Kelly called the overtime pay “outrageous,” while Davis said ranking officers are “gaming the system.”

Kelly added: “I don’t begrudge any man or woman making money. But you’ve got to do something. Because you have a gold badge (a ranking officer) doesn’t mean you’re better than a silver badge (a patrol officer). A lot needs to be explained.”

Police Chief Carl Davis defended Kenney, saying he “volunteered to come work in his own off time, which avoided countless patrol officers from being forced to work overtime.”

Kenney’s hourly salary is $33.70, which is paid at least 1.5 times when it’s overtime, while patrol officers are paid between $21 and $29.31 an hour based on years of experience.

Chief Davis said voluntary overtime avoids having to pay the enhanced level of overtime when a patrol officer is mandated to do that more than once a week. When that occurs, the officer receives 2.5 times their hourly rate, he said.

The chief said working overtime while on vacation sometimes occurs because “unfortunately, we are so short-staffed” and it’s done “in order to provide an adequate level of staffing. This is only approved on a case-by-case basis.”

Among the four other city employees to make at least $50,000 in overtime last year, two are police patrolmen and two are operators at the city’s wastewater plant, which is required to have someone in that capacity at the location around the clock.

MAYOR ‘APPLAUDS’ POLICE

Explaining the high overtime payments to ranking officers, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said: “The need of the city requires manpower and when we don’t have it because of staffing levels, these individuals work extra. I applaud them because these people are stepping forward. They say, ‘I’ll take up the slack.’ We can’t keep up with the attrition rate.”

Brown added: “They’re away from their families. They work for those hours. They’re putting in a lot of hours. These individuals are saying, ‘I’ll work it.’ They put in 60 hours a week at times.”

The police chief said the city has lost 29 officers in the patrol division over the past five years and has struggled to find those willing to join the force.

“My wish is we can hire 20 officers a year, but realistically, we can’t get 20 people to apply,” Davis said. “No one wants to work in this profession.”

The city in 2023 spent about $2.9 million in police overtime, according to the finance department. The budget was $2 million.

The city pays 19.5% of money earned by police officers toward their pensions, so overtime cost the city more than $560,000 in pension payments in 2023.

The department’s 2023 budget for police wages of $8.94 million ended the year at $8.07 million, so there was a savings that was almost equal to the additional money that went to overtime, according to the city’s finance department.

“It is much cheaper to pay overtime to employees than to staff full-time workers with benefits, pension pickups, etc.,” Davis said.

Davis said police overtime is “skyrocketing on a national level and is not only happening in Youngstown. Despite the record staffing shortages, officers continue to work tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of our community.”

The chief provided numerous articles from news outlets all over the country to The Vindicator that discuss high police overtime costs caused by a lack of staff.

As for why ranking officers, who are paid more than patrol officers, are getting most of the overtime, Davis and Brown said many of the patrol officers don’t want to work the extra hours.

“We’re reducing crime,” Brown said. “Patrol workers won’t take the overtime and the senior officers will. We want patrol to take those hours.”

The city is doubling its recruitment efforts to hire more officers and may be able to add seven to 10 to the force this year, Brown said.

The ranking officers are more “willing to work the overtime,” Davis said.

He added: “It seems that younger officers usually value their time off more than working overtime for extra money.”

Davis said: “My main goal is to try to avoid mandated overtimes. That is when an officer is forced to stay and work another shift after theirs ends due to low staffing and for the safety of the community and the other officers who are scheduled.”

‘ABUSE AND NEGLECT’

Councilwoman Anita Davis, a retired Youngstown police detective sergeant who spent 36 years with the department, said overtime by ranking officers “is abuse and neglect. They’re on the job. The question is how effective are they? Are they using best practices with scheduling?”

Davis, who is chairwoman of council’s finance committee, said while there is a shortage of patrol officers, staffing for ranking officers hasn’t declined because when they leave, they’re replaced by those in the patrol division.

While the number of patrol officers dropped from 112 in 2018 to 83 last year, the number of ranking officers remained at 41.

City council plans to have a meeting shortly to discuss police overtime, Davis said.

Most ranking officers work dayturn, allowing them to stay and work overtime, she said.

“If I’m working all night long, I may not want to work overtime, but it benefits those who work 8 (a.m.) to 4 (p.m.),” Davis said. “It’s gaming the system.”

She explained that officers take vacation “creating the shortage and then you fill it at time-and-a-half. It’s a great manipulation of the system.”

Kelly, who retired from the Youngstown Police Department in 2018 as a detective sergeant after 28 years on the job and is the current Youngstown school district’s director of security, said when he was on the force, officers had to justify overtime pay. But, he said, that is not the case anymore.

“People are showing up and doing nothing,” Kelly said. “This has to stop. I’m passionate about this because it’s abusing patrolmen. It’s unacceptable. It’s not a well-run department. How about working during the eight-hour shift you’re there. Young guys are grinding it out every day.”

Kelly added: The citizens of Youngstown will see change. Council can cut their budget and their overtime. This is just the beginning. Change is coming.”

Davis said she’s also concerned about the effectiveness of officers working constant 12- and 16-hour shifts.

“When do they sleep?” she said. “How fresh are you for these kinds of jobs? Are we getting the most out of you? Are you ready to go? Some officers work the long shifts and have secondary employment and then work nights and weekends. I’m concerned about the money and the productivity. The alertness and freshness is in question.”

The police chief said: “I think it goes without saying that any employee’s productivity would decrease as their work hours increase.”

Davis, Kelly and others on council have called for the hiring of part-time officers, but the patrol union’s contract doesn’t permit that unless staffing levels for those officers is much higher than it is currently.

“We have to address overtime,” Anita Davis said. “We may find out we can save a little bit of money like $100,000. That’s OK. It’s $100,000 we can use for something else. There are other perks like take-home cars. What’s the value of an unmarked take-home car and filling up on city gasoline?”

Every ranking officer in the city gets a take-home vehicle from the city and gets city gas.