War worsens problems with overtime for HPD

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The war with Iraq has exacerbated a staff shortage and heavy overtime spending at the Honolulu Police Department, and proposed city budget cuts could leave a serious overtime gap next year.

The vacancies require other officers to routinely work overtime to meet staffing levels needed to ensure public safety, HPD Finance Division Maj. Susan Ballard said.

And extra police deployments for wartime security are expected to cost an extra $100,000 in overtime each week.

The department regularly burns through its annual overtime budget early, and covers additional overtime with money set aside for positions that remain vacant.

Whether that will be possible this year depends largely on how long the war lasts and how intense the extra security needs are, Ballard said.

"If the war's over by June 30, we'll probably be OK, but if it goes into next year, we'll be hurting," she said.

Ballard said HPD's staffing woes have been worsened by the war because about 20 officers in the military reserve were called to active duty. Another 160 officers are in the reserves and could be called up if the war lasts long, she said.

HPD spends more on overtime than any other city department, by far. Though war-related overtime is having an impact here, it is far less than in other cities because Honolulu has remained more calm.

San Francisco, for example, has been spending an estimated $500,000 per day on police overtime amid massive anti-war protests that have led to more than 1,000 arrests.

Honolulu's new city budget, for the fiscal year that begins July 1, could greatly complicate HPD's overtime situation.

The budget proposed by Mayor Jeremy Harris would cut 41 police positions to save about $1.5 million. The positions likely would have remained empty anyway, but the money would have been available for an overtime bailout next year.

"I don't know what they're going to do," City Council budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said. "It's very difficult for them, and with the increased security, they'll go through their overtime more quickly."

If no money from vacant positions is available, the department will have little choice but to request a supplemental appropriation when its overtime money is exhausted, she said.

That means the budget could be balanced on paper at the beginning of the year, but would be unbalanced as soon as police reach the point where the extra money is needed.

Kobayashi said the council is considering ways to restore the cut positions, but must weigh such decisions amid the property tax hike and fee increases that Harris' budget assumes.

"What if we don't approve some of these fees?" she said. "I don't know what we're going to do. Usually if you increase taxes and fees, you don't cut services. Our residents are getting hit both ways."

She said about $91,000 had been spent so far this year on police overtime for the popular Sunset on the Beach events in Waikiki. The events would continue under the proposed budget, but the council is considering whether the city can afford them.

Police officials have long complained that comparatively low pay makes it very difficult to recruit qualified officers and retain the ones Honolulu already has.

More than 150 recruits are in training to join the department, but others constantly retire or take higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

The city budgeted $22.7 million for overtime in all departments during the current year. By December, the period covered by the most recent figures immediately available, just under half that amount had been spent.

Several departments have hefty overtime budgets, and a few others exceeded theirs by December, records show.

No money was designated for overtime at the Information Technology Department, but $30,672 was spent on overtime by December, according to a recent spending report.

The Department of Customer Services spent $56,910 on overtime by December, or $9,360 more than its overtime budget.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.