OSWEGO – With nine days remaining in 2020, Mayor Billy Barlow announced the City of Oswego has continued to reduce the amount of money spent on employee overtime, with city-wide overtime spending coming in at just over $900,000 for the year.
The city spent $909,000 on overtime so far in 2020, compared to $1,044,000 total in 2019. The trend of continuous reduction, dating back to 2016, follows several years prior to 2016 when overtime levels regularly hovered around $1.2-1.4 million annually.
In 2020, the Oswego Fire Department realized the greatest reduction of overtime worked, costing $171,753, compared to $234,948 in 2019. The Oswego Police Department spent $358,252 in overtime, followed by the Department of Public Works at $211,222, Department of Water at $83,669, Department of Animal Control at $48,526, Department of Wastewater at $33,896 and Department of Code Enforcement at $1,200.
“Since the beginning, reducing city-wide overtime has always been a goal of our administration and I’m proud to see the tradition continue through 2020,” Barlow said. “We continue to find efficiencies throughout city government to reduce cost, improve service, and save our residents money while improving our community. It truly is a team effort and I’d like to thank all city department heads and employees for their continued commitment this year.”
While many special events were cancelled this year due to COVID-19, likely saving on overtime funds, other overtime expenses were accrued due to COVID-19 mask distribution drives, COVID-19 education campaigns, social distancing and mass gathering details, Quality of Life details and other new, special initiatives.
“Reducing overtime is certainly good news for all the residents of Oswego and city employees should be congratulated,” said Robert Corradino, President of the Oswego Common Council. “The Mayor, department heads and all city employees should be very proud of this accomplishment especially given the difficult year 2020 has been. As the data shows, this is not a one-time occurrence but a trend that has been developed over the last 5 years due to the fiscal diligence of Mayor Barlow and the Common Council.”
