Comm Center Overtime Has Exceeded Budget

On any given day at Chicago’s police-fire communications center, there are about 39 employees on family medical leave, contributing to 16,000 hours of overtime each month, totaling $6.9 million so far this year—$600,000 over budget for the entire year. The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications already has 45 vacant dispatcher positions that it’s trying to fill, along with several dispatchers off-work daily for sick and other leave. During a city budget hearing, agency executive director Gary Schenkel explained to aldermen that the comm center also underwent a major renovation this past summer, adding to the overtime bill. Schenkel described the leave under the Family Medical Leave Act as abuse, but didn’t explain how dispatchers were misusing it. The center has about 370 dispatchers handling police and fire communications for the city. Read more about the overtime situation here.