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Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says he’s not happy about reports of excessive use of overtime by city road division employees and promised to look into the issue, following a series of stories Civil Beat published this week.

“We’re going to take a look at that, and we’re going to take whatever steps are necessary,” Carlisle told Civil Beat Wednesday. “I’m glad to know about the circumstances. I’m not happy about them at all.”

Civil Beat ran three articles about overtime use at the city’s Road Maintenance Division:

• Road to Riches Part 1: Overtime at City Road Division
• Road to Riches Part 2: City Workers Claimed 5,525 Overtime Hours for Illegal Stream Dumping
• Road to Riches Part 3: Getting Paid for Overtime Work — Twice

A review of two years of overtime records at the Road Maintenance Division, which falls under the Honolulu Department of Facility Maintenance, showed a department rife with outsized overtime claims, especially during the 2009 budget year.

The investigation also revealed that the illegal dumping of concrete rubble into Mailiili Stream in Waianae, for which the city has been fined $1.7 million and is paying $1.13 million to clean up, involved far more overtime than the city previously reported.

The mayor was particularly concerned about reports of possible double-charging by city employees who claimed overtime twice on the same day for different jobs performed at overlapping times, although the city says it didn’t pay employees twice.

“(Civil Beat) seems to have some information that suggests people were working two different jobs at exactly the same time,” Carlisle said. “If that’s the case, that could require investigations beyond which those I would be capable of taking, and would be referred to the appropriate agencies.”

Newly-elected City Council member Ernie Martin expressed concern by the use of overtime.

“Of course it’s a concern, especially if there’s abuse. Finances are very tight,” said Martin, who will represent District 2, or the bulk of northern Oahu. Martin was elected in the general election to replace the seat vacated by Donovan Dela Cruz.

“As a council, we have to be very diligent especially as departments come before us and present the budget,” Martin added. “If the overtime was necessary, why wasn’t regular staff hired?”

When Civil Beat posed that same question to city officials at the Road Maintenance Division, the division’s chief, Tyler Sugihara, said in a written response:

“(The Department of Facility Maintenance) has been trying to fill positions, but the city has been under a hiring freeze or slowdown for a couple of years now, due to budget constraints. In addition, the hiring process is lengthy and the labor pool for these vacant positions may be smalller than you assume, given that they are largely labor-intensive, given the salaries which may not be attractive, and given two days of furloughs per month, the equivalent of a 9.23 percent pay cut. Also, please keep in mind that the cost of an additional employee is not just the additional employee’s salary, but also the cost of his/her fringe benefits, which is approximately 60 percent of salary cost — a cost avoided by utilizing current employees.”

However, budget documents show the department’s bloated overtime costs often closely mirrored surpluses each of its units had in their “regular pay” budgets. For example, in the 2009 budget year, the storms drains unit spent $111,654 on non-holiday overtime, but ran a regular pay surplus of $149,900 for budget. The flood control-stream cleaning unit spent $195,198 on non-holiday overtime despite a $523,740 regular pay surplus. In other words, the city spent more money for fewer hours of work than it would have gotten if it had just hired more workers.

Council member Martin said he hopes to serve on the city’s budget committee so he can further explore the issue. “We need to be very diligent, and if I am fortunate enough to serve on that committee, that will be a question I will ask.”

Incoming council member Breene Harimoto also said he hopes that these are isolated cases of excessive overtime use.

“The vast majority of city employees are honest and dedicated,” said Harimoto, who will represent District 8, or central Oahu. “If these apparent overtime abuses and poor supervision prove to be true, I hope that these are isolated cases and not part of a larger problem. I trust that Mayor Carlisle will expedite a thorough investigation and take appropriate action. Cases like this will cause the City Council to review overtime budget requests with greater scrutiny.”