The city of Kettering reduced its overtime costs for firefighters after hiring new firefighters last year in an effort to get costs under control, according to the I-Team Payroll Project searchable database of public employees.
The city’s 2017 payroll included 55 police department employees and 41 fire department employees who made more than $100,000 last year. This is a reduction in both categories from 2016. The majority of the city’s highest-paid employees still worked in the fire department, however.
Overtime is down more than 6 percent citywide from 2016 to 2017 including in both the police and fire departments, and issue the I-Team has reported on for several years.
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"In 2016 we conducted a comprehensive analysis of our Fire Department staffing model and personnel expenditures," said Kettering spokesperson Stacy Schweikhart in a statement this week.
"In order to reduce our overtime expenditures, city administrators recommended and Kettering City Council authorized the addition of 13 new full-time firefighters to our Kettering Fire Department in 2017. Our year end data proves that the restructuring of our staffing model did result in the reduction of overtime, a trend we anticipate will continue."
The number of Kettering city employees overall who brought in six-figure pay last year, however, grew from 122 in 2016 to 127 in 2017.
The city’s highest-paid employee is City Manager Mark Schwieterman, whose $196,442 compensation last year was higher than Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein’s pay of $196,116.
RELATED: Dayton’s highest paid employees in 2017: I-Team Payroll Project
Local governments make payroll with your money, which is why the I-Team has assembled and made available a searchable database of pay for public employees.
An I-Team investigation last year found the ability to cash out unused sick and vacation leave is a rare perk in the private sector, though local governments are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of these payments.
SPECIAL REPORT: Taxpayers on hook for $444M in unused state worker leave
The I-Team searchable database only includes the 1,533 city employees paid more than $50,000 last year, so doesn't include city council pay. Mayor Don Patterson's compensation last year, for example, was $12,000.
Kettering’s 10 highest-paid employees in 2017 were:
1. Mark Schwieterman, city manager: $196,442.72
2. Neil Frederick, fire captain: $165,812.69
3. Jeffrey Greenup, fire captain: $152,617.3
4. Jon Durrenberg, fire battalion chief: $150,530.74
5. David Roth, fire battalion chief: $149,071.08
6. Theodore Hamer, law director: $146,922.68
7. Steven Bergstresser, assistant city manager: $146,768.6
8. James Lokai, fire battalion chief: $146,549.75
9. Brian Beaver, fire battalion chief: $145,419.08
10. James McGrath, firefighter/paramedic: $143062.85
The latest from the #PayrollProject:
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