As the city of Houston faces a $127 million budget deficit, three departments are overshooting their overtime budgets by more than $54 million, according to projections from City Controller Chris Hollins’ office.
City council member Sallie Alcorn, chair of the budget committee, told Houston Public Media after the meeting on Tuesday that the projections are “tracking with what we usually spend on overtime.”
“The problem is we don’t know what’s going to come up during the year,” Alcorn said, “and so we budget less than what it will actually cost.”
The controller’s office projected the solid waste, police and fire departments will exceed their overtime budgets by $2.9 million, $13.2 million and $38 million, respectively, by the end of this fiscal year in June. The office projects the overages will be down from last year, when those departments overshot their overtime budgets by more than $71 million.
Police and fire department officials attributed the excess overtime spending to an inadequate number of personnel and unexpected weather events.
“Manpower has been a constant challenge for the Houston Police Department for the last 20 years,” HPD executive chief Thomas Hardin said, adding the department has made strides on the issue under Mayor John Whitmire due to a “phenomenal” $832 million contract approved last year. It included 36.5% pay raises over five years.
HPD reported an increased number of officers this year — nearly 5,400, up from about 5,000 last year. HFD will increase from about 3,700 last year to nearly 4,100 by the end of this fiscal year.
According to the controller’s office, many of the top 10 overtime earners across the departments doubled their salary — and in the fire department, the top two earners more than tripled their annual pay.
The controller’s projections were disputed by union leaders with the police and fire departments. The disagreement continued a longstanding clash between Hollins’ office and the unions over the departments’ use of overtime funds.
“The Houston Fire Department is recovering from 7 to 10 years of mismanagement under prior administrations,” firefighters union president Marty Lancton said, adding, “The controller’s numbers on the piece of paper wasn’t even accurate — wasn’t even what the budget of the overtime was. So, I think facts have to matter and you probably need to check on those numbers.”
HFD also benefited from a new contract under Whitmire — a $1.5 billion deal approved in 2024 with more than 30% in pay raises over the five-year agreement.
According to the presentation from Whitmire’s finance department, the departments’ overtime spending last year actually exceeded the budget by only $9.6 million. Will Jones with the controller’s office said their figures differed from the mayor’s finance department because the controller looked at the initial budget while the finance department adjusted its figure on an ongoing basis. A spokesperson for Whitmire did not respond to a request for comment.
Unlike the police and fire departments, Houston Solid Waste Management saw a decline in the number of personnel — from about 450 last year to 385 this year.
“The main purpose of our overtime is to basically catch up on daily routes,” SWM director Larius Hassen said. “The majority of our overtime comes on holidays.”
Over the past 12 months, missed garbage complaints topped the list of complaints received by the city’s 311 center at 37,402 cases, up from 32,429 in the prior year. Complaints about missed recycling and heavy trash pickups trailed at 28,661 and 19,998, respectively.
According to Whitmire’s finance director, Melissa Dubowski, ramped-up operations during extreme weather — like the recent winter storm — cost about $1 million in overtime per day. Hurricane Beryl in 2024 contributed to significant overages during the last fiscal year.
The annual overtime budgets don’t account for potential disasters. Council member Abbie Kamin argued that should change.
“We have to start projecting for the expectation of disasters,” Kamin said. “We know that we’re going to have more freezes. We know that we’re going to have more floods. We have to be prepared — not just from a public safety perspective, but from a fiscal perspective.”
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