Label
Councilman Sarantou
Finance Debt & Budget Oversight Committee
Fire Overtime - June 2026
7/29/2026
Title
From: Councilman Sarantou Response Requested: 8/6/2026
Chief Armstrong, what are the reasons for the increase in Fire Overtime?
Body
Referral Response:
TO: Councilman Sarantou
THROUGH: Chief Allison Armstrong
FROM: Chief Allison Armstrong
Councilman Sarantou, there are multiple factors at play that we believe are responsible for the increase in the fire and rescue department's overtime costs in 2025 vs 2026. Fire overtime is primarily driven by our minimum staffing requirements in Toledo Firefighter's Local 92 and Toledo Fire Chief's Local 3382 collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). This language ensures that we always have a minimum of 113 firefighters, fire officers, and 3-line Battalion Chief working every day. The fire and rescue department started in 2026 with 10 less uniformed employees as compared to the start of 2025. We also had a 40% increase in members on parental leave for the same time period 2025 vs 2026. Beginning July of 2025 (after the 2025 reported period) new Local 92 CBA language allowed for the detailing of up to an additional 8 firefighters to participate in a program named “FLOAT”; these members were assigned to a 40-hour work week to cover for daily training and specifically prohibited for covering for minimum staffing shortfalls. These factors combined led to an increase in the number of unfilled minimum staffing positions that were required to be filled by members working overtime.
In addition to the above staffing challenges, ongoing contract negotiations altered the behavior of members in relation to how they were compensated for working overtime. Many department members, in anticipation of a ratified contract, chose to bank their overtime in the form of compensatory time. This led to a 222% increase in the cost of comp-time cashed out during the same period 2025 vs 2026. $451k in 2025 and $1.45 mil in 2026. Some of that increase was due in part to overall wage increases that were solidified for local 92 members with ratification of their CBA in July 2025. The average dollar per hour of overtime worked and paid rose from $66.89 in 2025 to $81.44 in 2026; a 22% increase.