Waste of the Day: $644,457 Overtime Checks in Los Angeles

Topline: The City of Los Angeles recently took out a $5 million loan to pay for police overtime during the protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and it’s no wonder why. The city spent a record $1.1 billion on overtime in 2024 and still has not solved a staffing crisis that has bilked taxpayers for years.

Los Angeles pays five employees in overtime alone, more than the Presidential salary

Key facts: Last year, five Los Angeles employees outearned the President of the United States’ $400,000 salary just in overtime alone. 

Firefighter Nicholas Ferrari earned $644,457 in overtime.

The LAPD spent a record $265.5 million on overtime in 2024, an issue that has skyrocketed in the last few years. Los Angeles Magazine griped in 2022 that 35 police officers had earned $100,000 or more in overtime. In 2024, 867 police employees made that much. Seven of them earned at least $235,000 in overtime, which had never happened before.

The same names continue to crop up at the top of the payroll. In 2010, the LAPD ordered Detective Nathan Kouri to stop working for six weeks because there was no money left to pay his overtime. Kouri was once again the highest-paid police employee last year with a $603,887 salary, including $404,875 in overtime. 

Police Chief Jim McDonnell makes $450,000, which is $100,000 more than his predecessor and almost double the police chief salaries in New York and Chicago.

Mayor Karen Bass made $328,394. She was one of 4,114 Los Angeles employees who outearned California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s salary of $242,295.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Why is staff still so short?

Background: Some reports have suggested that the staff shortage is due to a negative perception of police following the Black Lives Matter movement, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. LAPD job applications rose by 53% in the last two years, but hiring is down 8% because of the lengthy background check process, according to Police1. Human Resources Director Dana Brown told LAist that the city’s “archaic” civil service rules force applicants to wait six months or more for an interview.

The most recent data from the city controller shows a 17.5% job vacancy rate for the entire city as of December 2023, meaning one in six positions are unfilled.

Summary: The LAPD is spending taxpayer money to keep the city safe and maintain order, but when overtime spending is out of control, it must hire more people.

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.