City Council approves $590K transfer to cover KFD overtime

Dec. 3—The Kokomo City Council approved a nearly $600,000 transfer to help cover increased overtime spending in the Kokomo Fire Department.

The council voted 8-1 at its regular meeting Monday to pass the transfer of $590,990 from various funds to the fire department's overtime fund. The largest share will come from unspent money in the Kokomo Police Department wages fund, caused by the city budgeting for more officers than it employs.

Councilman Tom Miklik, R-District 6, was the sole "no" vote, as he said the transfer was "punishing" the police department.

The transfer request did not sit well with some council members, who discussed the topic during the informational meeting in the Louks Conference Room before the public, recorded, 6 p.m. regular meeting.

Councilman Tony Stewart, R-District 4, expressed his displeasure that, for the second year in a row, they were being asked to approve a transfer request for the fire overtime budget.

"We have to pass it, but I do believe that we need a more realistic amount of money you're going to spend," Stewart said to City Controller Wes Reed, referencing the city's proposed amount for the overtime budget presented by the city administration at the annual budget hearings.

The amount of overtime the fire department has paid out has exploded in recent years.

In 2017, the city spent just $181,000 in fire department overtime. That ballooned to $545,000 in 2018, after the fire department lost seven firefighters.

And it's only continued to increase since then.

In 2019, the city paid $672,777 in overtime, and in 2020, that increased to $786,035.

So far this year, the city has spent $1,022,141.46 in overtime, according to Reed, against a budgeted amount of $300,000, necessitating the transfer of funds.

Fire Chief Chris Frazier presented the council with an informational sheet explaining why overtime expenses this year have been so high, despite the city increasing budgeted staffing by three to 89.

Frazier has said in the past that he would like to see the fire department staffed at 100. In 2008, the department had 121 firefighters. During the 2021 budget sessions, Frazier requested 93 positions.

According to Frazier, the department hovered around 83 on staff for most of this year because of retirements, terminations, resignations and delayed medical training due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the informational sheet, the department lost over 100 manpower days to COVID-19 time off between Jan. 1 and Nov. 8. It also lost 40 manpower days between the day that former city fighter Marty Meyers died of COVID and when the department was able to make a new hire.

Part of the lost manpower hours were caused by an increase in firefighters undergoing planned surgeries in 2021 because they were delayed in 2020 due to the pandemic.

"We were averaging five people on sick leave for the first two months, so it's just a culmination of a lot of different things," Frazier said.

Even with the challenges, the fire department has 88 staff as of Oct. 1 but will likely have to continue its focus on recruiting for the foreseeable future because the average age of the department is fairly high.

The transfer request did not sit well with many on the council. Councilman Jason Acord, R-District 1, and Councilwoman Kara Kitts-McKibben, R-At-large, said it was not surprising, as it was made clear to the City Council earlier this year during the 2022 budget sessions by Frazier that the situation would likely happen if staffing difficulties continued throughout the year.

"This is not a huge surprise," Acord said. "We all knew this was coming. Everyone sits here, acting like it's a big surprise, but we knew this was coming."

Some on the council, though, disagreed with that analysis.

"I don't think you knew it was coming," Councilman Ray Collins, R-District 3, said. "You can't know what's coming. You knew that it could."

Milik, who voted against the transfer request, said he was upset the city administration was taking money away from the police department's wages budget to shore up the fire overtime budget and that this was dropped on the council this late in the year.

"Why didn't we know throughout the year, with periodic updates every month, every two months? " Miklik said. " ... But we didn't get any of that, and it's a mystery until the 12th hour. The 12th hour comes and it's, 'OMG, we gotta pass this because it's a budget item and it's an audit comment.' To me, I don't see that as a good reason. I believe that it's a matter of management, and I think we can do better."

To hopefully avoid another situation like this, Reed said a study is being conducted to find more efficient ways of doing things that would save the city money so it isn't in the same position this time next year. Reed said the study should be complete by the end of February.

"We've seen other departments do this as well," Reed said. "One was done for the police department here in 2019. They help you build a roadmap for your best foot forward."

"You should've led with that," Acord said in response to being told about the study.

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.