Mpls. overtime payouts jumped 20 percent in 2014

The city of Minneapolis spent $12 million on overtime last year, a 20 percent increase from the year before. The police department drove the large increase.

Overtime paid out to police shot up 42 percent, growing by more than $1 million, according to data posted by the city.

The department asked officers to work extra hours to compensate for a surge in retirements last year, said Assistant Police Chief Matt Clark.

"Our thing was: Make sure you maintain your staffing levels, gotta keep those call response times down," he said. "Part of that was making sure that our inspectors around the precincts knew that they could pull back officers for overtime to cover any gaps."

Sixty-three officers stepped down from the force in 2014, twice the typical number. Officers who wanted to retire before age 55 had a strong incentive to do so, before a change in state law took effect that would have reduced their pensions.

Officers also accrued overtime to ensure public safety at several high-profile public events, including the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, department spokesman Scott Seroka said in an email.

Police overtime was at its highest point since 2008, when the department spent almost $6.9 million on overtime. Despite that, the department managed to stay within its budget last year and crime rates remained stable, Clark added.

The city's other large departments, fire and public works, each saw increases in overtime spending around 10 percent.

While its budget is tiny by comparison, the city's health department had the largest percentage increase by far, with spending quadrupling to more than $50,000. The department stepped up inspections at outdoor festivals last summer in response to a 2013 salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 100 people.

This year's budget includes three new health inspector positions to help deal with the increased workload.

The city's overtime spending has been on the rise since 2011, when ran about $6.4 million.

"As part of overall salary and wages of $257 million for 2014, the fluctuation of $2 million in one year is not unusual or surprising," Sandy Christensen, the city's deputy chief financial officer, wrote in an email.

Until recently, overtime spending in Minneapolis was difficult for the public to track. But on Monday, the city launched a new website that lets users analyze and download detailed data on city spending.

The city paid a California-based company called OpenGov $50,000 to create the site. The move came partially in response to a 2013 report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which gave Minneapolis a D-minus for financial transparency.