Committee forwards $89 million intra‑budget overtime package to full Board

The Budget & Appropriations Committee on March 20 unanimously approved an amended ordinance to reallocate funds within the city’s current budget to cover rising overtime costs across multiple departments and forwarded the ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation.

The ordinance shifts approximately $90 million within departmental budgets (with $4.8 million in ambulance service revenue counted as new revenue for the Fire Department) to increase overtime budgets for the San Francisco Police Department, Fire Department, Sheriff’s Office, Department of Emergency Management and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). The Budget and Legislative Analyst described the ordinance as intra‑budgetary and recommended approval. The ordinance requires a two‑thirds vote of the full Board for the Fire Department appropriation amount noted in the charter.

Department leaders explained drivers behind higher overtime. Catherine Maguire of the SFPD said the department is about 600 sworn officers short of its recommended staffing level and is using salary savings to fund overtime while it recruits and hires. "There's no new general fund money here," Maguire said, adding that overtime has helped suppress certain crimes while staffing remains low. Mark Corso for the Fire Department said minimum staffing requirements, pandemic‑era separations and higher relief rates drove overtime spikes; the department is hiring and reallocating salary and fringe savings and applying some EMS reimbursements.

Sheriff's CFO Patrick Leung said the Sheriff’s staffing has fallen about 15.6% since FY2019 and that separations (including impacts from the vaccine mandate) and cost‑of‑living increases have contributed to higher personnel costs. Mary Ellen Carroll, director of the Department of Emergency Management, said dispatcher recruitment saw small academy classes and high attrition but that process changes and new recruiting capacity should improve future classes. Jeremy Spitz of the SFPUC said its overtime needs are primarily wet‑weather driven (flood barriers, field crews, lab sampling) and therefore partly unpredictable.

Supervisor Shamone Walton asked whether resources were being directed to the Southeast (District 10); SFPD Assistant Chief David Lazar said significant resources are being used for violence‑reduction work there and that the department is receiving 200–300 applications per month and is expediting background work to shorten time to academy.

The Mayor’s budget office proposed an amendment clarifying funding sources and correcting two police funding lines; the committee approved the amendment on roll call (5–0) and then voted 5–0 to forward the amended ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation.