QUESTION
Why is overtime used by the NYC Board of Elections and how does it compare to hiring full-time staff?
4:17:43
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105 sec
Overtime is used by the NYC Board of Elections instead of hiring more full-time staff due to the changing election schedule and the fiscal imprudence of upsizing staff.
- The NYC Board of Elections faces a complex election schedule with special elections throughout the year.
- Treating themselves like a retail vendor, they hire extra staff for peak times like Christmas Eve.
- The primary election was moved from September to June, leading to a continuous need for election workers.
- It is more fiscally prudent to pay overtime than to hire additional full-time staff.
- The cost of upsizing staff is higher than paying the existing staff overtime.
Gale A. Brewer
4:17:43
The overtime issue obviously is something that a lot of agencies have.
4:17:49
What kind of overtime are you looking at or have you looked at it?
4:17:52
Is that something that's gonna continue into the future?
4:17:55
Obviously, when the big, big election, I assume it gets even more complicated.
Michael J.Ryan
4:17:59
Yes.
4:17:59
So we have made a a value determination that we think serves the taxpayers of the city of New York in the best way that we can.
4:18:10
You can isolate in your budget analysis over time as a number and why is it so high, or you can spread it out over the cost of the year.
4:18:22
Election's typically not talking about early voting, but elections are on a Tuesday.
4:18:26
Right?
4:18:26
We can't say, come back on Wednesday if we're not ready.
4:18:28
Mhmm.
4:18:29
So what we have done is we've treated ourselves more like, you know, a retail vendor, a retail outlet that has up sizes for Christmas Eve.
4:18:42
Because of the number of early of special elections.
4:18:47
We used to kinda do it higher people in in extra people in July, August, and then in December, we would release them.
4:18:57
We don't have that kind of election schedule anymore.
4:19:00
Right?
4:19:00
The primary got moved from September to June, and then we're having special elections all year round.
4:19:06
So it is still more fiscally prudent and fiscally conservative, small c conservative, to pay people over time than it is to hire more full time staff.
Gale A. Brewer
4:19:17
Okay.
Michael J.Ryan
4:19:18
There's more cost associated with upsizing your staff than there is to paying the staff that you have the overtime.
4:19:25
And that's kind of the conundrum that we face.
Gale A. Brewer
4:19:27
Okay.
