Five years ago, only one Long Beach city employee earned more than $400,000 a year in total compensation, which includes salary, health and retirement benefits, plus any other extra pay.
Last year 37 city workers cleared that bar, and 27 of them were in the fire department, according to data from limited-government watchdog Transparent California.
Compensation for many firefighters was significantly inflated by overtime, which sometimes totaled as much or more than their regular salary.
City officials say although the fire department regularly exceeds what it has allotted for overtime pay, this hasn’t busted the budget because they’ve found savings in other areas to cover it.
Why is so much overtime needed? In Long Beach, 22% of all city jobs are unfilled, and the fire department is no exception, though it may be one of the most expensive to run with so many vacancies because of minimum staffing requirements.
“The staffing situation’s actually a nightmare,” said Rex Pritchard, president of the Long Beach Firefighters Association.
“We don’t sit there and tell people when they call 911 we’re not coming—we show up.”
Minimum staffing means if someone calls in sick or is out with an injury, another worker has to fill their shift. Some employees volunteer for extra shifts, but when that’s not enough, some are required to work (known as “forced hiring”).
Other factors that have compounded the staff shortage are firefighters being out with COVID infections, deployed to wildland fires (the state covers their pay for that), and taken off daily duty to get paramedic training, Long Beach Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan said.
Buchanan said those issues have led to a spike in resignations by people seeking a better quality of life in fire departments with a more normal workload, and Pritchard said the stress and overwork have contributed to a large number of injuries that have sidelined department employees.
Pritchard believes the untenable staffing situation was preventable and added, “it’s cheaper for the city to sit there and fund overtime than to hire the appropriate amount of people to staff the department.”
Grace Yoon, Long Beach’s deputy city manager, said the city has not been using overtime to save money, but officials are aware it is a problem.
For the past five years, the fire department has been allotted between $15 million to $20 million annually for overtime. The department, however, exceeded this budget by at least $5 million each fiscal year since 2018, according to city budget documents.
In fiscal year 2022, the fire department spent nearly $57 million on regular salaries. Overtime cost another $29 million.
But Yoon said while those numbers aren’t ideal, it’s been a wash in terms of the fire department’s overall budget because “they are finding savings in other areas in the department.”
As to the department’s recent reliance on overtime, Yoon acknowledged “there are instances where it is a helpful tool from a fiscal perspective, because staffing with overtime is cheaper than hiring.” But, she said, but “the city hasn’t been using this as a money-saving strategy.”
Even at full staffing, as a 24/7 emergency service, the fire department will always use some overtime, but Yoon said city officials are trying to get it down to a more manageable level to reduce the strain on firefighters.
Pritchard said that can’t happen soon enough. While doubling your salary with extra pay might sound good, firefighters aren’t necessarily thrilled about it, because it can mean “you’re not going home for your child’s first birthday—you’re working,” he said.
Buchanan said the city is taking several steps to fill vacancies and rein in overtime spending.
“We don’t want that to be the norm,” he said. “We cannot continue to have our members work that much overtime and put that much burden on the employee.”
A few weeks ago, a cohort of 49 recruits—the largest class in the department’s history—started at the fire academy. Buchanan said not all of those will go on to employment in Long Beach, but they’ve tweaked the curriculum to ensure more recruits are able to succeed.
By the end of the year, up to 18 new paramedics will have been certified, and Buchanan has lists of employees eligible for promotions to fill other specialized or high-ranking positions.
Buchanan, Pritchard and Yoon seem optimistic that the department is moving in the right direction to fill vacancies, reduce stress on current employees—and bring down soaring overtime costs.
Buchanan said in more than 30 years in the profession, he’s never seen as many vacancies as Long Beach has had the last few years, but he hopes it will soon be behind them.
“We’re already planning for the next fire academy” next fall, he said, “so we can stay ahead of it.”