State spending on overtime increased slightly over last year for the second quarter, according to a release from the Office of Fiscal Analysis, although some state agencies showed progress in reducing the number overtime hours for state employees. Overtime spending was up 4 percent over this time last year, with ...
One of the state’s residential facilities for the intellectually impaired was staffed using mandatory overtime 93 percent of the time even though Medicaid would fund half the cost of hiring more staff, according to a report by the Connecticut State Auditors.
A state employee with the Department of Developmental Services was placed on paid administrative leave for 69 weeks pending an investigation and collected $81,500 during that time, according to a report from state auditors.
Figures released Tuesday by the Office of Fiscal Analysis show Connecticut made big strides in reducing overtime, despite recent state employee layoffs. In fiscal year 2016, state agencies reduced overtime payments by 14.5 percent, $37 million less than the previous year. The biggest reduction in overtime came from the Department of Correction, which reduced overtime by $21.4 million, followed by the Department of Developmental Services, which reduced overtime spending by $5.2 million.
Ellis K. Hagstrom was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2014 for the repeated rape and sexual abuse of two disabled women he was supposed to care for while working for the Department Developmental Services. However, due to Connecticut’s strict policies on pension revocation Hagstrom will still be eligible to receive his pension. "Mr. Hagstrom's convictions do not qualify as predicate convictions," said Jaclyn Falkowski, spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney General, "thus barring action by our office to seek revocation of his pension."
Connecticut spent $119 million on state employee overtime during the first six months of fiscal year 2016, but that number does not include overtime for employees in the Departments of Transportation or Motor Vehicles. Citing “availability” and “reliability” issues with the data, the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) said it could only provide overtime numbers for employees paid through the state’s General Fund. That rules out DOT or DMV employees, who are paid through the Special Transportation Fund.