During the Oct. 22 Galion City Council meeting, Mayor Tom O’Leary and other members of council raised concerns about the amount spent on overtime hours at the Galion Police Department.

The council reviewed Ordinance 2024-82, an appropriations ordinance requesting several transfers of funds, including $40,300 redirected to the Galion Police Department to cover overtime hours.

O’Leary brought the unusualness of the request to the council’s attention, calling it an “unprecedented amount of overtime.”

“But when you have police chiefs making $90,000-plus, I’m not sure how much micromanaging we should be doing,” O’Leary said.

The ordinance requested that $15,300 be appropriated from unappropriated funds and another $25,000 be transferred from the regular employee police department salary fund to the overtime fund.

“It would be a shame if this council going into next year didn’t look into this issue more closely. It would be a real shame,” O’Leary said.

Council member Cathy George asked if this amount of overtime was strictly due to employees calling off shifts. O’Leary said that this was part of the overtime issue. Safety Service Director Nikki Ward clarified that the $40,000 requested is expected to cover the police department’s needs for the rest of this year.

Ward further explained that some of the overtime is, in part, a result of dispatch positions left open. Some shifts, like one with hours from midnight to noon on Saturday and Sunday, are difficult to fill. Ward said that other overtime hours have come from employees covering for others who are using planned vacation days. She added that a conversation on how best to address the saving issues may be better suited for a committee meeting.

Ward also said that there was one officer who was out for an extended time earlier this year due to an injury. She explained that when working with a smaller staff, being down even one person can sometimes require asking another employee to work overtime rather than working with too few people.

O’Leary responded saying, “They have enough staff.”

Council member Kara Ault asked Ward why the police chief was not at the meeting to discuss the appropriations ordinance. Ward responded that she is sure that Chief Ryan Strange would be willing to meet with the council.

George added that she is hopeful the department can come up with a creative solution to resolve the issue.

O’Leary said, “It’s a staffing issue,” and he added the department needs to understand how many employees need to be on shift at a time. “That’s not been an issue before,” he said. “Under previous police chiefs, it’s not been the degree of overtime. I think some of it has to do with some flexibility that will have to be developed.”

He suggested the department look into more flexible staffing solutions, which he admitted would be a difficult issue due to “the perception of and reality of safety.”

Ward said the department has faced additional issues with overtime hours this year because there are several employees with enough seniority to accrue six weeks of vacation time, which she said they are entitled to use.

O’Leary expressed further frustration saying that allocating money from other departments is not a solution to the problem.

Council member Mike Richart also raised concerns that this could become a trend in the future, which would create more complications for the council.

Both council members Ken Bodkins and Jessica Kemp-Mercurio were absent from the meeting and council was not able to vote on the ordinance.

In addition to police department overtime, the same ordinance requested $31,000 to cover overtime wages for the Galion Fire Department.

Hannah Bryan is a correspondent for the Galion Inquirer. She can be reached at [email protected].