PITTSBURGH — A Target 11 investigation into some Pittsburgh city employees’ six-figure salaries, including that of a controversial police officer who recently found himself on the other side of the law, revealed some surprising results.
While many might think Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto would be near the top of the list, he's not even close. Target 11's Rick Earle discovered that most of the employees in the top 50 are firefighters. Earle said the reason why they're making so much money can be summed up in one word: overtime.
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“I immediately think of the tremendous amount of hours they had to work to earn that amount of money, and I think about the tremendous sacrifice they made with their families not being there,” Firefighters Union President Ralph Sicuro said.
Sicuro said it’s simply a manpower issue. He said the city doesn’t have enough firefighters to meet minimum staffing needs to cover every shift.
“One of the things we inherited was a lack of ongoing public safety recruitment,” Pittsburgh Budget Director Sam Ashbaugh said. “Some years we had zero recruits and a lot of retirements. It's not something we can fix overnight.”
The city has begun beefing up the ranks and hopes to eliminate the excessive overtime, of which more than $17 million was paid out to firefighters alone last year – the highest of any department.
Safety concerns have also arisen due to the number of hours being worked.
“Our job is generally stressful to begin with. When you add excessive hours that you’re working, it adds to that stress, and we are concerned about it,” Sicuro said.
He said the department is looking at wellness programs to deal with the stress, but the massive overtime has created another problem for the city.
Firefighters, unlike police officers and EMS workers, are allowed to credit overtime when calculating pensions, leading to higher retirement payouts.
For example: If the deputy chief who made $226,000 were eligible to retire right now, he'd pull in $113,000 a year for the rest of his life.
Kevin Acklin, Peduto’s chief of staff, said the city just can’t afford it anymore.
“What we're looking for is a change in the rules so that in the future, those folks who come onto the bureau for our grandkids and the next generation, the next mayor, we solve this legacy costs, because right now, it's a bit of a runaway train,” Acklin said.
However, it’s not just firefighters.
Some police officers actually were able to double their salary by working secondary employment, but Target 11 discovered that some recent incidents have the city taking a closer look at the practice.
Pittsburgh police Sgt. Stephen Matakovich was caught on camera in November shoving and punching a man under arrest while working a detail at Heinz Field.
Before Matakovich was placed on paid leave, the veteran officer earned $190,000 last year, the second most of any police officer in the department. Target 11 found that he doubled his salary with premium pay, a combination of overtime and secondary employment, which is reimbursed to the city.
“I think the mayor and the police chief have made it clear that we'd like to take a hard look at how we staff our officers on secondary employment,” Acklin said.
Acklin said he realizes that many officers rely on secondary employment, but it’s still a concern.
“It exposes the city to a lot of risk. A lot of situations we've had with alleged misconduct have come out of secondary employment, and there's a question as to whether the best use of an officer in uniform is to be working the door at a bar,” he said.
Last year alone, officers earned more than $8 million working private security details. Thirteen of those officers made the list of top 50 earners, bringing home anywhere from $144,000 to $192,000.
“It's a shame that our employees have to rely on secondary employment,” Police Union President Howard Mcquillan said.
Mcquillan defended the practice, saying it’s not only a benefit for the officer, but also the city.
“It's not paid by tax dollars, and the city reaps the benefits of having more uniformed police officers out on the street,” Mcquillan said.
While the city limits officers to 32 hours of secondary employment per week, Citizens Police Review Board Executive Director Beth Pittinger said that’s on top of regular time and overtime, causing her concern about the added stress on officers.
“That's a lot of hours. It can be very stressful hours, managing all kinds of circumstances that are not pleasant,” she said.
Pittinger told Target 11 that she can’t help but wonder if some of the controversial incidents that have occurred during secondary details could have been avoided if the officers didn’t work so much overtime.