July
8, 2014
The
Examiner
By
Jonah Owen Lamb
The understaffed Sheriff's
Department spends millions on overtime to fill in the gaps created by dozens of
deputies on long-term sick leave, according to a civil grand jury report
released Monday.
The department paid out $10.7
million in overtime to fill in for injured and sick deputies in 2012-13, according to the report, which specifically looked into jail operations.
"The large amount of
overtime needed to meet the minimum staffing requirements for jail operations
suggests that a shortage of qualified personnel exists," stated the
report.
The matter has been compounded,
the report said, because the department has so many employees on long-term sick
leave instead of permanent disability and cannot therefore hire replacements
even though those people "are not expected to return to work."
During the same period, the
Sheriff's Department paid out roughly $3.7 million in workers' compensation
claims for job related illnesses and injuries. Currently, 50 deputies are on
long-term disability.
The practice of using overtime
to fill in for vacant sick and injured employees, the report said, depletes
city funds and increases the chances for injury as fewer deputies do more work.
"We found a relationship
between the heavy use of overtime in the Sheriff's Department and job related
injury and illness," the report said.
Using overtime costs data from
a recent controller's report on overtime in all city departments in 2012-13,
the jury noted that 31 percent of all hours worked by Sheriff's Department
employees were overtime. The City's overtime limit is 25 percent.
Still, that percentage was not
as high as other departments: 46 percent of all hours worked by Public Health
Department employees were overtime, and it was 40 percent for the Police
Department.
"I think it's fairly
accurate," Assistant Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said of the report.
Still, any attempt to reduce
overtime is limited because of the budget, he said. Even $10.7 million in
overtime is cheaper than hiring replacements and paying workers' compensation
at the same time, he added.
"Our staffing levels are
based on our minimum," Miyamoto said. "When people get hurt, we don't
get to replace them because they're not going out on permanent
disability."
Nonetheless, one tool the
department has used to reduce overtime is the use of newly graduated sheriff's
deputies for court security at the same time they train for jail duty.
The San Francisco Sheriff
Deputy's Association, which represents 750 of the roughly 838 deputies, did not
return calls for comment.
The grand jury recommended that
the Board of Supervisors request an audit of Sherriff's Department practices
regarding overtime and workers compensation claims.
The government oversight body
is an all-volunteer jury convened each year and investigates governmental
bodies. Its findings are nonbinding.
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