Deputies' OT quadruples
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The amount of overtime paid to deputy sheriffs and their supervisors guarding Honolulu International Airport has nearly quadrupled this year because of increased security requirements, staff shortages and possibly fraud.
Overtime skyrocketed from $170,000 last year to more than $640,000 so far in the fiscal year that ends June 30, according to the Department of Transportation, which runs the airport and pays for the deputies.
That is largely because the airport sharply increased security after the Sept. 11 attacks to comply with federal guidelines, bumping the number of sheriff's positions there from 27 to 63.
Only about 45 deputies have been available to fill the posts, however, so the remaining positions have been filled on an overtime basis. But some of the overtime may also have been fraudulent.
The Department of Public Safety, which includes the sheriff's division, recently reassigned a lieutenant from the airport detail while an internal affairs unit and the state attorney general's office investigate allegations of overtime abuse there.
"We don't think it's widespread, but if it happened, it's wrong," said Ted Sakai, department director. "We're focusing on a few individuals at this point. And if the allegations are proven, it would be serious."
The Department of Transportation canceled an agreement with the Honolulu Police Department in 1999 to provide airport security, after an audit criticized high overtime costs and triggered a similar investigation.
Two former police officers who were assigned to the airport pled no contest to theft charges last year for accepting pay for hours they did not work, including overtime. The two agreed to pay back about $23,000 and perform community service to avoid jail.
Yet despite repeated warnings by auditors about high overtime in the Department of Public Safety, the department did not closely track airport detail overtime until after the new allegations surfaced a few months ago.
The money that pays for the detail does not come directly from the department's budget, but is instead tracked and reimbursed by the Department of Transportation from a special airport revenue fund.
"It's just amazing how much we are spending on security now," said Laverne Hokama, acting head of the DOT director's budget office. "But it's something we have to do. If not, we'd have to close down the airport, and we can't have that."
The deputies patrol the area around the airport, arrest people detained by civilian security guards inside the terminal, and search suspicious vehicles.
Sakai said the Department of Public Safety realized after launching the fraud probe that it must monitor airport overtime more closely itself.
"Frankly, we had some administrative weaknesses," Sakai said. "I think we over-relied on the airport administration to track this for us. We've got to tighten up, and I think we have."
The department has been scrambling to hire and train additional deputies so that the airport can be fully staffed without overtime, he said, and the latest group is scheduled to graduate soon.
"At that point, we expect our overtime to drop dramatically," he said.
Revenue coming into the airport special fund that pays for the sheriff's detail dropped dramatically after Sept. 11, but Department of Transportation officials say it is still relatively healthy.
The fund balance is $396 million, but most has been earmarked for construction projects and operating costs. The airport lost $18 million when the state waived landing fees after Sept. 11 to boost the airline industry, and lost another $26.4 million when airport concessionaires were freed from minimum annual guaranteed payments they had previously agreed to.
"We still have a sizeable cash balance compared to a lot of the airports on the Mainland," said Jean Oshita, DOT deputy director, "but from a management perspective we still have to look at being financially responsible and prudent."
Overtime and holiday pay for the 148 deputies and their commanders in the sheriff's division apart from the airport detail has reached $95,795 so far this fiscal year, down from a high of $269,965 in 1999.
But overtime remains much higher in other branches of the Department of Public Safety, which has been under increased pressure to trim such spending.
A state audit released this month found that the department paid more than $7.4 million in overtime to prison and jail guards in 2001, and that the department had been unaware that its employees averaged $4,710 each in overtime that year.
But prison overtime has decreased from a high of $9.8 million in 1999, and Sakai said a certain amount is inevitable because prisoners must be guarded around the clock despite emergencies and staff shortages.
The department's corrections division is short nearly 200 people, and many workers leave every year to take higher-paying jobs in friendlier environments.
But the auditors urged officials to monitor overtime more closely, and questioned whether correctional officers were abusing sick leave and forcing the department to bring in others on overtime. One group of 25 correctional officers and other prison workers earned an average of $22,000 in overtime and took an average of 36 sick days, the audit found.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
