Houston is on track to spend even more on overtime than a city controller report projected earlier this week.
The controller’s report, presented to council’s budget committee on Tuesday, said the city had budgeted $65 million for overtime in the fiscal year that ends June 30, but now is projected to spend $137 million on the extra pay.
Whitmire administration officials, however, produced a chart on Wednesday showing that overtime spending by three city departments – police, fire and solid waste – was expected to exceed $148 million this year.
Mayor John Whitmire criticized the controller’s office for the report during Wednesday’s city council meeting, saying it failed to include all sources of overtime funding and inflated the overtime costs in comparison to recent years.
Overtime costs for police, fire and solid waste employees make up the vast majority of the city’s overtime budget. On Tuesday, Controller Chris Hollins’ office told the budget committee the city was expected to reach a 10-year high in overtime spending.
The controller’s office presentation by Deputy Controller Will Jones showcased the amounts to be pulled from the tax-supported general fund. It did not, Whitmire said, include overtime paid from other sources, which he said in recent years included federal pandemic relief money and special revenue funds.
When all funding sources are considered, the amount spent on overtime this year by the police, fire and solid waste departments will top $148.8 million, according to the administration.
Whitmire called the controller’s presentation disingenuous because it did not compare “apples to apples” and was a “political report.” When comparing overtime amounts year-over-year, only the Houston Fire Department will go over last year’s overtime spending, the mayor’s office said.
The controller’s office had said the Houston Police Department would exceed last year’s overtime spending, and solid waste would equal its fiscal 2024 level.
Staffing shortages, demands
According to the mayor’s office, the police department will spend $7.6 million less on overtime than in 2024, and solid waste will spend approximately $909,000 less – though both departments still are over their allotted overtime budgets.
This year’s police overtime budget was set at $13.7 million. According to the administration, actual overtime spending will reach $56 million. The controller’s office had projected $39.8 million in general fund overtime spending.
The overtime budget for solid waste was set at $4 million. The administration said it will top $6.3 million. The controller had projected $7.1 million.
All three departments have exceeded their overtime budgets for years, due to short staffing and demand, including several disasters such as last year’s derecho and Hurricane Beryl.
“I think it’s misleading to paint a picture that the amount of overtime that’s happening has increased drastically from prior years,” Finance Director Melissa Dubowski said. “It’s just the funding source is different, and it’s true that the general fund is having to absorb more because we don’t have those federal funds available to us.”
The city currently faces a $330 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year unless it finds a way to increase revenue or cut spending. Whitmire’s administration will present the 2026 budget in May, which Whitmire insisted Wednesday would be balanced.
Hollins has said he will not be able to certify the budget unless spending is successfully cut.
Leadership changes
In recent years, departments have been able to use one-time federal funds from the COVID-19 pandemic to pad their overtime budgets, as well as use budgeted salaries for vacant positions, Whitmire and Hollins said.
As pandemic dollars dry up and the departments spend more money to recruit and retain employees, there are fewer available dollars to pay for overtime.
The goal, officials agreed, was for each department to be sufficiently staffed to not need as much overtime. The police and fire departments have not reached that point, despite hiring successes, because recently graduated cadets still are going through on-the-job training, said Steven David, Whitmire’s deputy chief of staff.
A police cadet, for example, still receives a full salary but has to be paired with a seasoned officer for a year, making overtime necessary for experienced officers until the new hires can be on their own, David said.
Neither the mayor’s office nor Hollins criticized the need for overtime in the public safety sectors, but Hollins pushed City Council to reconsider how it budgets for overtime.
“Mayor, if you’re not alarmed by the overtime figures, we’ve got a real problem,” Hollins said.
Whitmire defended the departments, saying all three have had changes in leadership over the past year and a half that will make the departments more efficient.
Dubowski also said the administration was working on collaborations with other government entities, such as Metro, to offset city costs.
Officials currently are awaiting a study into the solid waste department’s finances that potentially could point to a resident garbage fee – which proponents say could fully fund the department and improve services. Whitmire repeated Wednesday he will not institute any new fees or increase tax rates until he was sure the city runs efficiently on its current revenue.
The mayor’s office saw the first draft of the completed study in December, David said. The study was meant to be a look into the spending habits of the department and how to best allocate funding, not the successes of the department as it currently operates, David said.
David said that the initial executive summary, however, showcased opinions about department operations from former Director of Solid Waste Mark Wilfalk, who resigned March 28.
The administration asked the consultants to refocus on the department’s spending to better act as a roadmap to understanding how much it would cost to run the department efficiently, David said. The final report is likely to be presented to City Council before it votes on the budget, he said.
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