Florida county's fire department sees time and attendance costs fall

Thanks to a 2009 workforce expansion, overtime employee attendance payouts for the Martin County, Florida, Fire Rescue Department reached a 15-year low in fiscal year 2011, according to the Treasure Coast Palm.

The county's 290 fire rescue workers - including 33 additional hires funded by a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Services federal grant - accrued $509,029 in overtime pay last year. The total was considerably less than the nearly $830,000 earned the previous year, and bested the 1998 record of $714,160 by a significant margin.

Fire chief Joe Ferrara told county commissioners that the new hires cover veterans who are taking health leave or vacation time, eliminating the need for other veterans to work overtime, the news source reports.

The savings come at a time when many emergency services departments are looking to cut back on their time and attendance expenditures. To keep costs down, Georgia's Camden County is considering training local prison inmates as firefighters to reduce overtime payouts, according to the Florida Times-Union. 

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