By Nicole Ramirez
McIntyre in the Morning
Another audit by the City Controller exposed massive amounts of money being spent on Overtime at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.
Four supervisors at the LADOT claimed $70,000 in overtime and one manager drew $155,319 tripling his salary just in overtime alone. The average overtime for workers in the department’s traffic paint and sign division was $48,100.
Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin, told McIntyre in the Morning a tip coupled with proactive data mining led to the audit and the discovery of the outrageous amount of money that was being spent on overtime. However there’s no evidence to show this was illegal because the paperwork that was kept by the LADOT was poorly done, according to Galperin.
“What they did have done were time sheets that were signed off by the supervisors, but some of these supervisors were making pretty incredible overtime themselves,” he said. “Unfortunately the paper work done doesn’t tell you what work was done and or if it was done.”
The new LADOT general manager, Seleta Reynolds, outlined a plan that includes updating and clarifying procedures, better monitoring of overtime and seeking more staff and resources for the paint and sign division, including the hiring of private contractors.
During the period covered by the audit, Reynolds said some of the overtime in question could have resulted from increasing workloads. While Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in office, more than 100 miles of bike lanes and thousands of miles of resurfaced city streets needed to be striped.
“Even if someone has truly worked consecutive 18 hours and continues to do so for years, that takes a toll on somebody’s body,” said Galperin. “If they in fact did that we would have a lot of potential for liability with worker’s comp.”