Lately there have been several stories about government employees and overtime pay. I covered the gaming of the overtime/sick leave system by jail guards, and recently there was also a report on excessive overtime with nurses and other state employees.

This week it’s employees of the Milwaukee Police Department. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in September on police department employees literally doubling their pay because of overtime.

In 2006, MPD paid out $17.8 million in overtime pay. That was up 23% from 2005’s overtime. The newspaper calculated that the overtime pay in 2006 would have been enough to fill the 227 sworn officer vacancies plus hire 153 more officers, and pay all benefits. That’s wages and benefits for 380 employees

And the situation apparently didn’t improve since that September story. Here’s what the newspaper reported today:

Thirty-one MPD detectives, police officers, lieutenants and sergeants each made at least $40,000 in overtime and $100,000 in total pay last year. An additional 50 made more than $30,000 in overtime.

Timothy Heier, an MPD homicide detective we wrote about last summer, used his nearly $70,000 in overtime to elevate himself into the top 10 highest-paid city employees last year, earning $140,000 in total pay. Heier was the only one in the top 10 with any overtime.

Heier made about $8,000 more in overtime than in regular salary. In fact, he made more in overtime than 6,300 city employees made in total pay. The database contains 8,100 employees.

Homicide detective Erik Gulbrandson was second on the MPD list making $57,000 in overtime and nearly $127,000 in total pay.

Am I saying these employees don’t deserve their pay? No. If they worked the time and it was legitimate overtime work, then they deserve the pay that’s set up under the law.

However, my issue is that these jobs are not six-figure jobs. They’re not set up as such. They have a certain pay range that has been established. To double that because of overtime is wrong, mostly because it is a waste of taxpayer money. If more work needs to be done, then more employees need to be hired. We all know that it’s cheaper to hire an employee than it is to continue to pay time-and-a-half or double-time to existing employees.

Want to see how much other city employees are making? Check out the database here for 2007. It’s all a matter of public record, and taxpayers ought to be informed.