Saratoga Springs examines rising overtime as police and fire outline staffing pressures

City public-safety leaders presented quarter-to-date overtime figures and said staffing gaps and unscheduled leave are the primary drivers of increased costs.

Eric Warfield, assistant chief of police (S9), told the council the police department's year-to-date overtime hours are down about 9% from last year — from roughly 14,369.25 hours to about 13,131.25 hours, a reduction Warfield characterized as about 1,238 hours. Warfield credited the decline to fewer vacancies, curtailed optional training and reduced outside details: "We came down from 2024 to 2025, and we're down again 2025, over to 2026... we reduced the number of trainings that we've offered our personnel," he said.

Fire-department staff (S8) presented the department's Q2 overtime and comp-time picture, reporting $566,208.77 in the quarter and noting the figure represents roughly 125% of the budgeted amount for that period. The presenter said the department paid out both current overtime and comp-time from prior periods and has reassigned many prevention-office duties to line crews to maintain minimum staffing, acknowledging that reassignments could reduce inspection capacity.

Council members and staff highlighted several operational drivers: unscheduled sick leave and injuries, minimum-staffing contractual obligations (including SRO details), recent retirements and vacancies, and required trainings that can create overtime spikes. The finance speaker (S6) outlined a near-$980,000 combined total for Q2 when overtime and comp-time payouts are aggregated and said the city will track overtime drivers quarterly.

Options discussed included targeted hires to close staffing shortfalls (the police asked for approval to hire two replacement officers), further analysis of comp-time accounting, and use of a portion of a firefighters' rightsizing assignment to offset overtime. The finance speaker recommended applying $250,000 of an existing rightsizing assignment this year to reduce fire-department overtime pressure.

Councilors expressed concern about the long-term effect of cutting optional training to save overtime — both Commissioner Coates (S4) and Assistant Chief Warfield urged balancing fiscal goals with sustaining critical training. No final budget action was taken at the meeting; councilors directed staff to bring recommended budget transfers and potential hires for formal consideration.