FRANKFORT — As the Kentucky General Assembly repeatedly slashed the budgets of most state agencies in recent years, some legislative leaders were approving generous overtime payments for their staffers.
Over the past four years, 23 aides to House and Senate leaders have racked up nearly $300,000 in overtime payments, records obtained by the Herald-Leader show.
In the House, there was little oversight of how overtime was awarded and House leaders could produce no written policies regarding overtime payments. Some staffers were able to accumulate additional payments of more than $10,000 a year in excess of their salaries.
House leaders also approved more than one bulk overtime payment in the same calendar year for some employees, a benefit unavailable to employees who don't work directly for an elected official.
The Legislative Research Commission — the bureaucracy that serves the Kentucky General Assembly — has 439 full and part-time employees, 58 of whom work directly for legislative leaders. The rest work under the supervision of LRC Director Bobby Sherman.
Most legislative staff are salaried employees. Rather than receiving overtime payments as they are earned, workers accumulate the extra hours, which can be traded for time off or cashed out in one bulk payment per year.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, in his first year at the helm of the lower chamber, said leaders will have to examine House overtime policies given the Herald-Leader's questions about previous payments.
Charlotte Ellis Land, Stumbo's chief of staff, said they found no overtime policy when they took over the office from former Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green. Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, defeated Richards in January.
Ellis Land said they were not aware that in previous years people sometimes received multiple overtime payments, called "Block 80s," or that some of those payments were for more than $10,000.
"It's something that we're going to have to look at," Ellis Land said of the overtime policy.
Richards did not return repeated calls for comment, but others said the overtime payments to staff were justified, noting that legislative aides who work for leadership often clock 16- and 18-hour days during legislative sessions. In the past few years, there have been special additional sessions on top of regular legislative sessions that begin each January.
Regular LRC staff may not be asked to work those kind of hours, legislative leaders said.
"No sane person would put themselves through it," former House Majority Whip Joe Barrows said of the hours leadership staff are expected to work during the session.
Working without overtime
Others say it's not fair for House and Senate leaders to dole out so much overtime when other state employees, including teachers and local prosecutors, put in long hours and receive no additional compensation.
Commonwealth Attorney Ray Larson said two of his prosecutors recently finished a trial that required them to work more than 100 hours in one week. They will get no extra money.
In addition, many commonwealth and county prosecutors had to furlough staff this year because of budget cuts.
"I am proud of our prosecutors and prosecutors across the state who are willing to do the job no matter how much time it takes and without being paid for it," Larson said. "Unfortunately, prosecutors don't have the luxury of paying their staff for additional time, but I guess other agencies do."
When asked why aides to state leaders should get overtime when teachers don't, Stumbo said he didn't know. "That's a pretty good question that needs to be reviewed."
Overtime payments aren't the only relative indulgence enjoyed by the lawmaking branch of state government.
While many state agencies have seen their budgets shrink in recent years, the Kentucky General Assembly's has grown.
Even after cutting its budget by 4 percent to $50.6 million earlier this year, the General Assembly's budget is up 8 percent since 2007.
Rules stringent for others
Sherman, the LRC director, said he has no say over how staffers for legislative leaders are compensated.
Non-partisan staff, or LRC employees that don't work for elected officials, can receive payment for 80 hours of overtime once they accumulate 240 hours of overtime, Sherman noted.
But staff can get that payment only once per calendar year, Sherman said. The payment is for their typical rate of pay — not time and a half, according to the LRC policy manual.
Records obtained by the Herald-Leader confirm that the LRC's non-partisan staff, as well as aides to legislative leaders in the Senate, have received only one overtime payment a year since 2006.
Limiting overtime payments reduces expenses and ensures that overtime payments do not break a budget, state officials said.
In the executive branch of state government, led by Gov. Steve Beshear, non-policy-making employees can cash out 50 hours of overtime after they accumulate 150 hours, state personnel policy says.
It is possible for a person to get two "Block 50" payments, or payment for 50 hours of overtime in a year, state Personnel Cabinet staff said, but it's rare because there are safeguards in place to guard against Block 50 overtime abuse.
For example, a manager can make someone who has accumulated 150 hours of overtime use their banked time before they use vacation time. Managers also have the right to send someone home if they accumulate more than 200 hours of additional overtime, said Dinah Bevington, general counsel for the Personnel Cabinet.
Policy-making positions in the executive branch are not eligible for block payouts. Those employees can accumulate 240 hours of overtime pay, which is cashed out when they leave state government, according to state personnel policy. Any additional accumulated overtime is not paid, according to the policy.
4 get multiple payments
In contrast, House leaders have given two and sometimes three overtime payments during the same year to four people since 2006.
John Gillig, former chief of staff for Richards, received three payments — two for $4,404.96 and one for $607.40 — in 2006. According to LRC records, Gillig made $106,000 a year as Richards' chief of staff.
Stephanie Kirtley, former chief of staff for House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover, also accumulated multiple overtime payments in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Hoover did not return phone calls seeking comment. Kirtley, according to LRC records, made $99,744 a year.
Some staff were paid for accumulated overtime in January, during the first month of the legislative session.
Becky Barnes, who was then chief of staff for Joe Barrows, received an $11,320 payment on Jan. 15, 2007, only two weeks into the legislative session. She had received a $14,087.04 payment six months earlier in June 2006.
Barrows said he couldn't remember details of the payment because it was several years ago, but he said Barnes deserved every penny. And it was likely that his staff and others didn't get paid the overtime they deserved, he said.
Barrows said it was likely that Barnes accumulated overtime during the last half of 2006 and cashed out in early 2007 after he left the House.
"I don't remember if I approved the overtime," Barrows said. "I probably left that up to my chief of staff."
Ellis Land said overtime has not been an issue so far this year. Stumbo has received only four requests for overtime block payments since January, she said.
Still, Ellis Land said neither she nor Stumbo sees a record of the staff person's time when the request is made by a legislative leader other than Stumbo.
The Senate appears not to have the same rules as the House. In a written statement, Senate President David Williams said that the Senate follows rules similar to those of the non-partisan staff at the LRC and that he approves overtime case by case.
Williams said the LRC's overtime policy is less generous than the executive branch's because staff are only paid their regular rate of pay — not time and a half.
Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, said his staff often must attend meetings on weekends and late in the evening. They deserve the payments, even though some make more than $75,000 a year.
"There are a lot of other more important things to look at," Worley said.
