I-Team: State says paying overtime costs less than hiring

Related document: State salaries and benefit packages (.pdf)

CRANSTON, R.I.—The Carcieri administration and the General Assembly have mandated a reduction in retirement benefits for state workers.

As a result, hundreds of state workers have left to avoid reductions, which are increasing overtime, especially at the state prison and the state’s two hospitals.

Add to that a hiring freeze for correctional officers and some state workers are making salaries that are costing taxpayers millions.

The highest paid state employee is University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Jim Baron. His salary and benefit package costs taxpayers $415,238 a year.

The second and third highest paid state workers are two registered nurse supervisors at the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.

For fiscal year 2009, Abella Corpus made $336,025; Sylvia Macagba made $315,590.

Three correctional officers cost taxpayers more than $250,000 each in fiscal year 2009.

Overtime for the guards and nurses accounts for most of the cost. At the Adult Correctional Institutions, retirements are taking its toll.

“In 2008, we’ve had over 70 retirements that haven’t been replaced, and currently there’s a freeze on hiring correctional officers, lieutenants, captains and nurses. So, the only way to fill those positions is overtime,“ said Ken Rivard, of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers.

Rivard said there’s a shortage of nearly 150 guards at the ACI, and even though there are 22 new guards who have graduated from correctional officer school, the state won’t hire them.

“We’ve been lobbying to bring them in at several meetings we’ve had recently with the state. They’ve indicated to us that it’s cheaper to pay overtime than bring these new employees in,“ he said.

Gary Sasse, the director of administration, said the correctional officer union’s contracts, which include mandatory posting requirements and seniority clauses, all contribute to the high overtime costs.

“In looking at overtime you have to ask what causes overtime. It’s caused by variations of shifts, vacations, sick days, payroll days. In the case of corrections, we have a number of correctional officers on military deployment,“ he said.

Sasse said the administration is working with the correctional officers’ union to see if the state can afford to add new guards.

NBC 10’s I-Team obtained a print out of all the salaries and benefit packages for all state workers.

A review of all the salaries and benefit packages for nurses and correctional officers revealed that there are 435 correctional officers and 58 nurses who cost taxpayers more than $100,000 a year.

Craig Stenning, director of MHRH, said of the overtime for nurses, “Some nurses’ base pay is as high as $92,000 a year. We need 85 nurses. We have only 63 working. They have a difficult job and overtime is required to take care of the patients.“

Sasse said despite a shortage of nurses, the nurses’ union contract has a lot to do with the $300,000 salaries.

“One of the nurses making over $300,000 is a supervisor and the supervisor is paid double time for each unit that person supervises. So, if a person on overtime supervises two units, it’s four times pay,“ he said.

Some of the high salaries for correctional officers are due to back pay from an arbitration award, but there is a considerable amount of overtime.

Sasse said there has been a huge reduction of state workers, 1,600 in the past two years. He said with union contract and staffing requirements, it’s not necessarily cheaper to hire more workers.

Sasse said with changes in benefit packages, including retirement, the taxpayers are seeing a net savings in personnel costs.