Dallas County Sheriff's AssociationDallas County Sheriff's Association
News
To help rein in costs during a tough budget year, Dallas County sheriff's employees will no longer be paid overtime for extra work duty.
County Commissioner John Wiley Price recently delivered that directive to sheriff's officials, and Sheriff Lupe Valdez agreed to implement it immediately. The change brings the Sheriff's Department in line with policy governing all other county departments – that anyone working more than 40 hours be given compensatory time.
Federal labor rules set limits on how many hours of comp time an employee can accrue, after which they must be paid overtime. The limits are different for sworn and civilian employees, officials said.
While sheriff's officials agreed to implement the change, the department's employee associations say it's a bad idea and that they will seek legal opinions on the matter.
"In the current economic climate and budget shortfall, we are having to tighten our belt just like everyone else," Valdez said in a prepared statement. "I'm doing everything I can to try to save jobs and ensure that service to the community is not impacted in any way."
Valdez is hoping to avoid layoffs in a year when commissioners are trying to close a budget shortfall that is expected to exceed $60 million. Departments are being asked to make 10 percent cuts to their budgets, which still won't be enough.
Overtime spending at the Sheriff's Department has ballooned to record levels in recent years, having peaked at $10.6 million in the 2006 fiscal year. Most of that was generated in the jails because of staffing shortfalls and jail crowding.
Since then, the county has hired several hundred more jail guards while the jail population has fallen from more than 7,000 inmates to under 6,000.
As a result, overtime spending fell 29 percent last year. Even so, the department spent more than $7 million on overtime last year.
"As of this point forward, any overtime hours worked in any of our divisions and sections will only be earned as comp time and not paid as overtime," Chief Deputy Joseph Costa wrote in an internal memo.
The only exceptions, the memo said, will be for police work that's paid for with grant money, such as DWI enforcement operations, and overtime that's reimbursed by the federal government for work on federal task forces.
"No other exceptions!!" the memo said.
Sgt. Charles Bailey, an officer with the Dallas County Peace Officers Association, said many employees need the overtime pay instead of comp time because of economic hard times.
"I think that employees will rebel," he said. "I don't think they would work as diligently for comp time as they would for overtime."
Ben Roberts of the Dallas Sheriff Fraternal Order of Police said he already has contacted his association's attorney and will "pull out all the stops."
"It's disgusting to think it's come to this. Morale is at an all-time low," he said.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Association also is seeking an opinion on whether the new rule violates the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Price, the Commissioners Court's point man for jail operations, said he's not worried about legal opinions from the associations.
"That's what they pay dues for," he said.
Commissioner Mike Cantrell said the sheriff will have to manage comp time so that it doesn't disrupt 24-hour operations in patrol and in the jails. He said the new policy will be good for Valdez because she "takes a beating" over overtime spending each year.
"The sheriff is going to start following county policy," Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said. "I found out several weeks ago that they were letting them choose. Our policy is that you get comp time."