Fire! (audit)

According to a post on the City Council Message Board, Council may be following up on its concerns about a $3.5 million transfer to the Fire Department – with an audit. Though Council members approved the funding last month in order to pay for overtime, many did so reluctantly, and only after noting that they were not happy with the position they found themselves in. Now Council Member Jimmy Flannigan is sponsoring a resolution for the June 15 agenda that will take a look at: “How provisions in the Austin Fire Department Collective Bargaining agreement affect the department’s overtime expenditures and/or total personnel expenditures; What operational policies, staffing models, rules or practices, currently used are the main drivers of the Austin Fire Department overtime; What factors have contributed to the increase in the average per hour overtime rate for the past several years; and how shift-trades and overtime requests among sworn firefighters structured, requested, accepted and monitored.” Stay tuned.