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City Council Regular Meeting - Submit your written public comment City of Pleasanton Full Name First Name: Richard Last Name: Schneider Email (this entry is disclosable if included) Submitted On: Aug 15, 2025, 10:09AM PDT Meeting Type City Council Regular Meeting at 7 p.m. Agenda Item Number 9 & 10 Comments I believe that for the first time, annual overtime pay in Pleasanton exceeded $10M (per the latest Government Compensation in California data). In 2024, total overtime pay was $10.54M, (or 12.8% of total wages) of which overtime pay in the fire department totaled $8.33M, 79% of total overtime pay. This is not new news for the Fire Chief, Mayor, City Council and City Staff, but may be for city residents. The number is especially alarming in Pleasanton's current financial environment where so many, worked so hard on identifying cost savings, but could do little about reducing overtime costs (exceeding $10.5M per year). In reviewing the budget package approved by the City Council on June 17th, fire department overtime is planned to stay constant at 18.5 personnel from the FY 2023/2024 baseline level through FY 2026/2027. While I understand that there are good reasons to budget for 18.5 personnel to cover for time off, injuries, training, etc., the cost for those overtime personnel is where the challenge lies. In 2024, with the equivalent of 18.5 fire department personnel costing $8.33M, each overtime personnel cost $450K. Those are extremely expensive resources that I can't imagine ever being approved in a normal hiring situation. As a comparison, in the police department 9.4 overtime personnel cost $1.62M. That's $170K per resource. While I'm aware that the new LPFD MOUs contain modifications that should impact total overtime pay (and I commend the effort and diligence that went into this from both the Livermore -Pleasanton Fire Department Joint Powers Authority as well as the labor unions and their members), until the new costs are quantified, I don't know how significant the impact is. I support fairly compensating the brave individuals that provide exceptional fire protection and emergency medical services but in Pleasanton's financial situation I would request fire department leadership to aggressively tackle the overtime issue and look for additional creative solutions. Even a 10-20% reduction per year would save $1-2M annually while minimizing the impact on employees. As the City Council looks at approving fire department MOUs, please ensure that the proper individuals stay on top of this issue with a management oversight plan