News Briefs From Southern California
By Associated Press - March 20, 2006LOS ANGELES (AP) _ More than half of the Department of Water and Power's employees soaked up overtime that added 50 percent or more to some base salaries of $74,000 to $100,000.
DWP workers earned more than $51 million in overtime in the last six months of 2005, the Daily News reported Monday. Records show nine out of 10 employees in some DWP divisions got overtime pay.
Overtime pay on the DWP's water division alone is on pace to hit more than $20 million this fiscal year. Overall, overtime accounted for nearly 14 percent of DWP's payroll during the last half of 2005.
"There's no doubt it's a tremendous problem. It's very tempting for an employee to do things at overtime rates, rather than within the allocated work hours," DWP commission vice president David Nahai said.
Nahai is part of the new board charged by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with reforming the DWP.
DWP officials defended the overtime as necessary.
"You have emergencies, people take time off ... overtime is just a given in the business," DWP chief administrative officer Robert Rozanski said. Efforts are under way to find ways to reduce overtime, including work schedules and deployment patterns, he said.
Rozanski noted, however, that it's often cheaper to pay existing employees overtime than to hire additional workers that would also need health care and other benefits.
"Typically it's cheaper to work OT than hire additional personnel," he said.
DWP commissioner Nick Patsaouras said the large amount of overtime wasn't a major concern.
"Overtime is for an on-needed basis, and I appreciate it when the lights go out, but not on a chronic basis," he said. | 
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