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| N.J. County to Hire 21 Officers to Save on OT |
| By Press of Atlantic City |
| Published: 03/20/2003 |
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Cumberland County will create twenty-one new positions for corrections officers at the county jail to offset the rising cost of overtime. Members of the freeholders Finance Committee approved the plan March 4, which was proposed by Cumberland County Jail Warden Glenn Saunders and Deputy Director Bruce Peterson, the freeholder liaison to the jail. Saunders told committee members that he would have to request $1.6 million for overtime in the 2003 budget. He said the only way to decrease that figure would be to increase his staff. 'Every day off results in overtime,' he said. 'Every vacation day, every sick day results in overtime.' Saunders said that results in mandatory overtime for staff, which Peterson said could contribute to the high degree of turnover at the prison. 'I have staff that call in sick during the day because they have plans with their families in the evening and they don't want to be ordered to do overtime,' Saunders said. He said every new hire could save $10,000 on overtime and he could decrease his overtime budget to $1 million with the new hires. Finance Committee Chairman Louis Magazzu said he liked the idea, noting that the county had its first decrease in overtime at the jail when 14 new corrections officers' positions were created in 1998. However, noting that the 2003 budget deficit is estimated at $3.2 million, which would result in a 6-cent tax increase, Magazzu asked whether Saunders could cut his overtime budget by an additional $100,000. Saunders said he would look into the possibility, but had to check the cost of three instances where corrections officers were ordered to guard suspects during hospital stays. Saunders said those three court-ordered instances cost the jail as much as $3,500 per day. He said those costs could affect how much he would have to ask for overtime. Magazzu said if Saunders could make the reduction, that could affect the county's overall budget problem. 'This is what we have to do,' he said. 'We have to ask every department head to help us to deal with this budget crisis.' |
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