817/2014 Port Authority o~Rrtime exceeds second-quarter projections 

Port Authority overtime exceeds second-quarter projections 

PACommitteeMeetingJuly 23-2014.JPG 

Port Authority commissioners briefed on overtime spending during a committee meeting Wednesday 

morning are considering hiring an overtime consultant to reign in the persistent problem. (Steve 

Strunsky/The Star-Ledger) 

Steve Strunsky I The Star-ledger By Steve Strunsky I The Star-ledger 

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on July 28, 2014 at 6:42AM, updated July 29, 2014 at 6:49AM 

"It seems to me that every meeting I've attended, the overtime has been escalating." 

NEW YORK- At a July 2013 meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Operations 

Committee, the agency's chief financial officer, Elizabeth McCarthy, reported that police overtime was up by 

more than a third during the second quarter compared with the same period in 2012, and more than a 

quarter for civilian employees. 

McCarthy assured commissioners the agency had taken steps to cut overtime, but she warned, "It's going 

to get worse before it gets better. 

"But it is going to get better," she said. 

Well, it's still getting worse. 

One year later, during an Operations Committee meeting on Wednesday, McCarthy and other staffers told 

commissioners that second-quarter police overtime was up by 32,000 hours, or 14 percent over 2013. And 

civilian overtime was up 11,000 hours, or 6 percent. 

In both cases, second-quarter overtime far exceeded projections. For the agency's approximately 5,000 

civilian employees, the 14,000 overtime hours over projections meant just under three hours per employee 

for the quarter. Among its 1,700 police officers, the 37,000 hours beyond the department's quarterly 

overtime budget amounted to 22 hours per officer for the months of April, May and June. 

Commissioners who had thought overtime issue was being addressed were stunned. 

"It seems to me that every meeting I've attended, the overtime has been escalating," said Commissioner 

Ken Lipper, who joined the board in June 2013. 

Lipper called for hiring a "world-class consultant" on overtime to rein in the hours. But at the suggestion of 

Vice Chairman Scott Rechler, the committee agreed that staffers should come back with a more 

comprehensive overtime report at the Sept. 17 meeting, including details of steps being taken to cut 

overtime. 

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8!7/2014 Port Authority o\.€rtime exceeds second-q uarler projections 

The board's new chairman, John Degnan, told McCarthy to translate all those hour figures into dollars, after 

no one could say exactly what the overtime was actually costing. 

Meanwhile, civilian employees in departments other than aviation or the PATH system actually logged 

13,000 fewer overtime hours than had been budgeted- or 22 percent less- for the quarter. And that 

translated into 32 percent fewer overtime hours than in the second quarter of 2013. 

But PATH employees worked 25,000 overtime hours more than projected- 38 percent above projections. 

That overage was blamed on an accelerated construction schedule for a PATH train control system, higher 

than expected absences and more frequent service to accommodate demand during the Pulaski Skyway 

overhaul, which limited automobile access to New York City. 

The additional police overtime was attributed in part to expanded patrols at the World Trade Center as 

more facilities opened there, including the May opening of the National 9/11 Museum. 

The Port Authority's security director, Joseph Dunne, said recent promotions and two large cadet classes 

would bring the PAPD up to proper supervisory and patrol levels, and thus cut overtime. Dunne said many 

of the 195 rookies who graduated from the Port Authority Police Academy in January had been assigned to 

fill gaps in patrols at the agency's airports, after an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration last 

year restricted the duties of officers assigned to airport firefighting units. 

But Dunne said overtime should begin to go down after 260 rookies from the next cadet class- the 

department's largest ever- go to work. 

"They graduate next month," he said. 

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