ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


CNN Today

San Francisco's Overtime Dilemma

Aired December 27, 2000 - 4:42 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: A bit rosier economic picture in San Francisco, where a hot economy and lots of jobs with no one to fill them has budget-watchers there a little nervous. They're paying police, firefighters, even bus drivers enough overtime to send paychecks soaring into the $100,000-a-year range.

CNN's Don Knapp has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): City jobs may be dull and poorly paid in some communities. But in San Francisco, city jobs, like these police officers working a movie shoot, can be exciting and remarkably well paid, thanks to budget surpluses and overtime pay.

GAVIN NEWSOME, SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR: Well, the extremes are, we have over 550 people in San Francisco earning over $100,000 a year. And, principally, that's based upon the ability to generate upwards of 90-plus percent of their salary in overtime expenditures.

KNAPP: The high-tech boom has help generate $100 million budget surpluses five years in a row. But overtime pay is eating up nearly half the surplus; 135 San Francisco firefighters expect to earn over six figures this year. So do 13 bus, trolley and cable car drivers, 24 transit supervisors, and more than 300 police officers. One motorcycle cop moonlighting on movie shoots expects to knock down $150,000 this year.

Movie companies reimburse the city for police services on shoots, but taxpayers cover the rest.

ED HARRINGTON, SAN FRANCISCO CONTROLLER: I think most people would rather have us spending money at straight time, not time-and-a- half, and putting it in library services, or recreation and park services, or even police and fire services, but have more people there available working straight time to do it.

KNAPP: But police and firefighters say they have to work overtime to make up for understaffed departments.

JOHN HANLEY, PRES., FIREFIGHTERS UNION: People get injured fighting fires. We had a -- last night, we had a guy cut his tendon in his hand. Now he's going to off for six months. Somebody has to come in and fill his position. KNAPP: And bus drivers say overtime is built into their nine- and 10-hour daily schedules.

JOHN DUDLEY, TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION: You're talking about 800,000-plus people per day which we move around. And please believe me, all that overtime money is earned.

KNAPP: But supervisor Gavin Newsome says overtime has become an entitlement for city workers, and budgeting, a game.

NEWSOME: You get an allocation of money for new positions. You don't hire those positions. You use the savings -- the money that was appropriated for those positions -- to pay for overtime costs.

KNAPP (on-camera): Supervisor Newsome says he and others are trying to curb overtime excesses. But because public safety and transit are at stake, politicians find it difficult to just say no.

Don Knapp, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.