Overtime Pay Racked Up By Some Riverside County Workers, Report Finds

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County agencies' overtime expenses exceeded $120 million in the previous fiscal year, with the sheriff's department leading the pack, according to a report the Board of Supervisors received Tuesday.

Auditor-Controller Paul Angulo presented findings from his office's "Full Transparency Countywide Overtime Monitoring" assessment for 2021-22, which showed a total of $121.9 million disbursed, compared to $111.1 million in OT costs throughout county government during the 2020-21 fiscal year.

"This is the good, the bad and the ugly," Angulo said, infusing an unusual tone in the presentation that raised hackles from several supervisors.

Angulo took a swipe at his challenger in the Nov. 8 general election, Ben Benoit, suggesting the Wildomar mayor had a soft work ethic, prompting board Chairman Jeff Hewitt to ask that the auditor-controller confine his comments to the data.

Angulo turned his attention to the Department of Code Enforcement, saying it had "run amok."

"I don't know if there's any management there," he said, pointing to the $53,754 in overtime expenses in 2021-22, which represented a 2,200% leap from the prior year.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries "applauded" Angulo and his staff for working to ensure agencies are staying within budget. But the supervisor couldn't understand why the auditor-controller singled out the Department of Code Enforcement for criticism, in light of the comparatively small sum of money.

"We have multimillion-dollar issues to resolve going forward," Jeffries said.

Angulo described the Office of the Registrar of Voters as "completely out of control," wondering aloud whether Registrar Rebecca Spencer was capable of managing the agency.

In 2021-22, the registrar's office racked up $1.04 million in overtime costs — 20% more than the previous fiscal year.

Supervisor Karen Spiegel came to the agency's defense, noting that unforeseen expenses, particularly the September 2021 gubernatorial recall election, had weighed heavily on the registrar's ledger.

Angulo lastly took aim at District Attorney Mike Hestrin due to the roughly $3.22 million in OT outlays at the DA's Office — a 38% increase from 2020-21.

"I'm always wondering why Mike Hestrin runs away from me when he sees me in the parking lot. Now I understand why," the auditor-controller said.

Hestrin's staff wrote in a response posted to the board's agenda that of the nearly $3.22 million in expenses, "63% was reimbursed by outside funding — various federal, state and local non-county revenue sources."

The agency further noted that most of the OT stemmed from operations within the Bureau of Investigation and that "fiscal responsibility is still the ultimate target."

Angulo spent only a moment referring to sheriff's operations, but of all the audited agencies, the sheriff's office had the largest dollar amount in overtime expenses — $66.17 million, representing an 8.5% increase from 2020- 21.

The auditor's report showed that 269 sheriff's employees earned OT that was at least 50% of their base pay, and of those personnel, some pulled in OT equal to their entire salaries, with one employee, a communications supervisor, taking home three times that unnamed party's annual salary, or $377,297.

"A review of our overtime expenditures reflects the fact that nearly 42% of Sheriff's Department overtime spending last year was reimbursed — via grants, court security funding, special event charges and payments from the cities that contract with the department for law enforcement patrols," according to an agency statement.

"The overtime for those operations caused no unanticipated charges. Some overtime is inevitable, necessary and non-reimbursable in a complex, around-the-clock public safety operation."

The Department of Public Social Services, which each year has the largest operating budget of any county agency, recorded $12.13 million in OT costs, a 31% jump from the prior fiscal year.

One of the divisions managed by DPSS, Child Protective Services, has struggled with high turnover and other strains, requiring more OT outlays.

"The department utilized overtime to ensure appropriate workload coverage affected by caseload increases and staffing dynamics," the agency said.

The Riverside University Health System's Behavioral Health Division documented $2.56 million in OT, a 15% increase from 2020-21. The agency routinely shows up in annual watchdog reports by the California State Controller's Office on public payroll activity because its clinicians earn some of the highest pay in county government.

"Approximately 81% of the overtime was worked in the jails and ... due to consumer service workloads and staffing needs for difficult to recruit positions," according to an agency statement.

In a couple of instances, OT expenses dropped during 2021-22. The Department of Public Health was the most significant example of that, with OT expenses totaling $2.27 million, a decline of 55% from the previous fiscal year, attributable to a rollback in coronavirus emergency operations.

Similarly, the Riverside County Fire Department's OT outlays amounted to $2.6 million, or roughly 6% less than in 2020-21.