Port Authority reduces overtime payments

Overtime payments to Port Authority employees dropped in the first six months of the year compared with the same period a year ago, agency executives said Wednesday, crediting tighter controls and less winter weather-related work.

The agency trimmed 130,000 hours of overtime from its 2012 budget. "Obviously, we benefitted from better weather," executive director Patrick Foye said.

Even when workers who remove snow and ice on overtime are taken out of the tally, hours are down.

For the first six months of 2011, workers, excluding snow and ice removal, clocked 898,000 hours of overtime. For the same period this year, that number is 768,000 hours -- a 14.4 percent decrease, Foye said.

Overtime hours declined for each of the agency's departments, Foye said. An agency spokesman couldn't detail how much money the agency saved.

In February, the Port Authority's board of directors released an audit that found employee compensation grew in the past five years by 19 percent, from $629 million to $749 million, mostly because of "add-ons" such as overtime. The audit recommended tighter controls on overtime.

Bobby Egbert, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said the overtime payments show that the authority needs more police officers. "There's a body of work that needs to be done," he said. "Obviously, they choose to address that body of work with overtime."

This story has been changed to correct the number of overtime hours.