Firefighter overtime surged 65% in a decade, costing California $5 billion a year in wages
Los Angeles Times
December 8, 2019, 2:00 pm
As that blaze raged, Daryl Osby, chief of the L.A. County Fire Department, had to staff more than 170 stations from Malibu to Pomona. The department paid roughly $200 million on firefighter overtime last year, up from $140 million in 2011. The extra pay now accounts for a third of the payroll. “We rely on overtime to meet the mission because ...