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Q&A
NYCHA's overtime spending and staffing strategies
1:50:51
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171 sec
Council Member Kristy Marmorato questions NYCHA's $182 million overtime spending, suggesting it might be more cost-effective to hire additional employees. NYCHA officials explain that this represents a decrease from previous years and discuss the trade-offs between overtime and hiring new staff.
- NYCHA reduced overtime spending from $234 million to $182 million
- Officials cite high fringe benefits rates as a factor in overtime vs. hiring decisions
- 30% of overtime budget is for scheduled weekend shift coverage due to union contracts
Kristy Marmorato
1:50:51
So you guys keep looking at statistics numbers, and I just wanna gently remind you guys that these are people's lives who are impacted by these statistics and these numbers.
1:51:01
And as we start going through things, I see that you're spending a hundred and $82,000,000 on overtime.
1:51:10
Wouldn't it be cheaper to like hire more employees and do you have a problem with recruitment?
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:51:17
So $182,000,000 in overtime is actually a decrease from prior years.
1:51:22
So
Kristy Marmorato
1:51:23
last year But it's a lot of money.
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:51:25
Trust me I agree with you.
1:51:27
Last year we spent $234,000,000 in overtime and that has helped us to meaningfully address the work order backlog.
1:51:33
But to your point that is unsustainable and so we've decreased the budget to $182,000,000 and we are providing you know additional support for our staff through full time staff as well as contracts to support the work order backlog.
1:51:49
Is
Kristy Marmorato
1:51:53
there an issue with recruitment?
1:51:54
I mean, are you just not hiring more employees?
1:51:57
And, you know, you talk about, like, funding and this and that.
1:52:01
Like, these these are simple little ass like sweeping a floor with two inches of dust, food all over an elevator floor.
1:52:08
Like, these are simple maintenance issues that are not getting done.
1:52:11
And I don't think it's because there's backup.
1:52:13
These are things that should be done every single day.
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:52:18
So there is certainly a trade off that we constantly face between overtime funding and hiring additional staff.
1:52:26
We have a pretty high fringe and benefits rate.
1:52:31
And at the same time we are trying to manage getting all of the work done that you mentioned.
1:52:37
And some of that work has to be done on overtime because we are trying to be responsive perhaps after hours.
1:52:42
We also have scheduled versus unscheduled overtime.
1:52:45
So for example, 30% of our overtime budget is for scheduled shift coverage on weekends to have caretakers and maintenance workers at the developments to pick up trash, sweep floors, mop stairwells, etcetera, as you mentioned on the weekends.
1:52:59
So that, while it seems like it would be a normal cost because of our union contracts, that is considered overtime as well on Saturday.
Kristy Marmorato
1:53:07
Yeah, it's a big number.
Gale A. Brewer
1:53:09
I just
Eva Trimble
1:53:10
want I just want to add, sorry, to answer your question, we actually don't have an issue with recruitment.
1:53:15
We've improved our frontline hiring tremendously over the last year.
1:53:20
So it's only taking us about thirty days to replace frontline staff.
1:53:24
So we've worked hard with our HR department.
1:53:27
They've made tremendous strides to make sure that we have bodies in all of our headcount.
1:53:32
And so we are able to do that.
1:53:34
But as as we've said, you know, overtime is a standard part of our business practice.
1:53:39
It doesn't mean that we can transfer it easily to hiring new staff.
Kristy Marmorato
1:53:42
Do these maintenance workers have, like, an accountability, like something that they have to report what they actually do every single day?