Council Member Joaquin Martinez said the city needed to figure out how the departments were running to be more efficient and shift from there.
“I appreciate this report, but I really would like to drill down more on mitigating actions on the operational side, not just throwing money at it,” he said. Source
Martinez was referring to the fact that the City’s budget is significantly exceeding the allocated amount due to extremely high overtime pay for police, fire, and solid waste personnel.
Houston clocks record overtime pay for police, fire as city contends with $330M deficit.
As Houston contends with a $330 million budget deficit heading into the next fiscal year, top officials with the controller’s office said Tuesday that Houston had broken a record in paying its employees over their standard workweeks.
The city budgeted around $65 million for employee overtime in last year’s budget, a figure that represents 4% of the city’s personnel budget.
Houston is on track to spend more than double the budgeted amount, and may consequentially spend close to $137 million on overtime alone before the end of the fiscal year, Deputy Controller Will Jones told council members at Tuesday’s Budget and Fiscal Affairs meeting.
The Houston Chronicle asks: Who is to blame? What a silly question. The buck stops at the dictator’s (mayor’s) desk.
