OT overdone? Some cops at Port double their pay

The King County Sheriff's Office isn't the only law-enforcement agency whose officers are boosting their pay — and retirement benefits — by working long overtime hours.

In recent years, several Port of Seattle police officers have worked up to 2,000 hours of overtime a year, an average of 38 hours of overtime a week, and more than doubled their salaries and pensions.

In some instances, officers have worked 25 hours straight.

"We certainly have concerns. The last thing we want is people who aren't wide awake and paying attention on their jobs," said Tim Kimsey, chief of the Port's Police Department. "But in the past 11 years, we have not had a problem with people falling asleep on the job or not being able to complete their work."

Leonard Smith, a spokesman for the police union Teamsters Local 117, said the union "absolutely" agreed with the Port. "You want people that are well rested and not stressed out, of course."

Concerned about the overtime loads, the Port's Police Department has added a clause to its labor contract mandating an eight-hour rest period once an officer leaves work. However, as it currently stands, the contract allows officers to work shifts back to back, so they could continue to work up to 25 hours straight. The Port Commission will vote on the contract change in early February.

The department overtime is created by vacancies and heightened airport security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to Kimsey. Officers who worked 25 hours in a row, for instance, did so shortly after the attacks, when security throughout the nation was increased, he said. He also said members of specialized units such as K-9s automatically receive overtime for taking care of and transporting their dogs to work.

"Over the last several years, we have received approval to add one or two positions here or there," said Kimsey, who is comfortable with the current 108 officers. The Port police are responsible for law enforcement in all Port-owned areas, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport..

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr has recently become concerned about a handful of deputies in her office who are working an excessive number of consecutive overtime hours. In the Sheriff's Office, one deputy worked 1,755 hours of overtime in 2004, an average of 34 hours per week.

Rahr will meet with the guild that represents sheriff's deputies in early February to negotiate changes to the overtime policy in the labor contract.

"The sheriff is determined to put a cap on overtime," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart. "Not a dollar amount necessarily — because that's not what concerns her — but the number of consecutive hours."

The Port officers who worked the most overtime hours last year put in more time cumulatively than the sheriff's deputies who worked the most extra hours. The Sheriff's Office is seven times larger than the Port's Police Department.

In 2004, Detective Roy Woo worked the most overtime hours in the Port of Seattle Police Department, logging 1,995 hours of overtime and collecting overtime pay of about $93,200 on top of a base salary of about $66,600. Over the past five years, Woo has averaged about $150,400 a year in gross wages, compared to a base salary of about $62,700 for the same period.

Woo's regular week is four 10-hour shifts, and he frequently takes on overtime patrol shifts on the weekend.

"To take care of our family — that's the main goal," said Woo, who has a stay-at-home wife and three kids. He sometimes works 20 hours in a row.

"I try not to do it too often; it is a long day," he said. He doesn't think fatigue has been an issue on the job.

"I do get tired just like everybody else, but I know what point to stop," he said. "If you sit around, you get tired, but if you walk around in the garage, do traffic patrol, then you don't get tired."

Because the state retirement pension is based on his highest-paid five years, Woo will be eligible for an annual pension of at least $81,200 if he retires at the minimum age of 53, based on current salaries. Without the overtime, his pension would have been about $33,800 a year, based on current numbers.

Woo says increasing his pension is not the main goal, "but it is an incentive."

"I do enjoy my work," Woo said, "and I wouldn't work all this overtime if I didn't enjoy it."

Unlike the Sheriff's Office, which is funded by federal grants, a levy, contracts with cities, and county taxes, the Port pays officers' salaries out of federal funds and income generated by Port business.

The pension is funded by contributions from the officer, the Port of Seattle and the state pension fund. Officers contribute 6.99 percent of their paycheck, the Port contributes 4.39 percent and the state contributes 2.79 percent.

Bryan Vila, a criminal-justice professor at Washington State University who studies fatigue, said officers who work 1,700 hours of overtime a year are in the "higher range" of departments he has surveyed across the country.

"You might be concerned if they were having to stay awake for more than 17 to 20 hours a time. That seems to be the general problematic range," said Vila, who wrote the book "Tired Cops: The Importance of Managing Police Fatigue." "If you've been awake for more than 24 hours, it's roughly equivalent to a 0.10 blood-alcohol level."

Steve Peltekian, a bomb technician and patrol officer at Sea-Tac Airport, worked 1,270 hours of overtime in 2004, an average of 24 hours a week. He collected about $60,100 in overtime pay, on top of a base salary of about $67,300. The overtime and base wages don't include the wages Peltekian also gets paid extra for working standby and on-call hours as a bomb technician. (For bomb technicians, "standby" requires a response within one hour; "on-call" requires a response within two hours.)

For standby hours, Peltekian receives 50 percent of his regular pay; for on-call hours, he gets paid 10 percent. During those shifts, he cannot drink alcohol and he has to be able to respond within a short period of time. Including that pay, he made about $156,600 in 2004.

In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Peltekian worked 165 days straight.

"My fatigue was never a factor," he said. "I look back on what the military is doing in Iraq. They're 24/7. They've done a heck of a lot more. I went home to my wife and two kids every day."

What primarily contributes to his overtime, he said, is his work as a bomb technician. Because of his expertise, Peltekian is frequently placed on on-call or standby status and called in to work, which counts as overtime.

He said he has used the extra pay to save up for his two sons' college education. His wife drives a Saturn, Peltekian said, and he drives a pickup. "If I have one or two toys," he says, "it's from investing in the stock market."

Peltekian will be eligible for a pension of at least $74,900 a year, based on current numbers. Without overtime hours, his pension would have been about $30,800, based on current salaries.

How overtime enhances his pension "had no bearing here," he said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com