Who earns the most overtime pay in Miami-Dade government? Search our county data

Lenard Davis works as a maintenance supervisor in Miami-Dade County’s transit system, but more than $200,000 in overtime pay has helped him earn more than anyone else in his department — including the county’s transit director.

Thanks to overtime, Davis landed on the list of 50 employees who earned the most in county government last year. Miami-Dade paid Davis $313,000 last year, more than Mayor Daniella Levine Cava ($201,000) and multiple department heads, including the county’s police director and transit director ($278,000), inspector general ($273,000) and fire chief ($260,000).

READ MORE: How much does the average Miami-Dade worker make? Search our database on government pay

The majority of Davis’ compensation came from what the Department of Transportation and Public Works, home to the county’s transit system, said was an average of 58 overtime hours a week at $69 an hour as he supervises repair crews at Metrorail and Metromover stations. That’s on top of his regular shifts at $46 an hour in the standard 40-hour workweek.

No employee in the county’s 31,000-person workforce earned more from overtime last year than Davis did, a situation a county spokesperson said reflects severe staffing shortages in the transit system’s maintenance staff.

“Ongoing labor shortages have necessitated the use of supervisors to fulfill essential maintenance tasks — to ensure needed upgrades and repairs can be made as swiftly as possible,” Juan Mendieta, a spokesperson for Transportation and Public Works, said in a statement. He called Davis “a key employee with specialized knowledge and expertise” in a transit system facing staffing issues and chronic maintenance issues from aging infrastructure.

Davis is an extreme example of Miami-Dade’s overtime expenses, which cost taxpayers about $330 million last year.

Like other employers, Miami-Dade typically pays employees 150% of their hourly wage when working overtime. That means for each hour of overtime, Miami-Dade pays an extra 50 cents in wages for every dollar the employee would have earned working a regular shift.

With budget pressures in Miami-Dade government growing as the real estate market cools and a new slate of elected office holders jostles for county funding, overtime costs are getting more attention.

Running in the county’s first sheriff election in 60 years, Republican candidate Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz urged Miami-Dade commissioners in September to reject the mayor’s budget proposal reducing the police force’s overtime budget by a third — from $44.5 million this year to $30 million in 2025. The commission declined, passing Levine Cava’s $12.7 billion budget mostly intact.

Cordero-Stutz, who was elected sheriff on Nov. 5, said she’s concerned police operations will suffer with fewer overtime dollars to spend once she takes office Jan. 7.

The 2025 sheriff budget drafted by Levine Cava’s staff and approved by the County Commission in September also has less money for training new officers than in past years. With funds budgeted for two new academy classes in 2025 — down from five classes in 2023 — Cordero-Stutz sees a reduced pipeline of officer cadets ready to fill shifts left open by retirements. That dynamic will mean more scheduling demands for remaining officers — at a time when the budget has fewer dollars available for extended shifts.

“Without those classes, we don’t have the new officers to back fill,” she said. “That means after eight or 10 months, we’ll have a decrease in the number of officers available. That’s going to increase our overtime.”

Levine Cava brushed off the dispute as more about financial planning represented by the budget than the reality of police commanders being unable to deploy officers with overtime pay as needed. While the 2024 overtime budget was $45 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the county said actual overtime costs were closer to $86 million.

With the sheriff’s office not coming into existence until Jan. 7, Levine Cava retains authority over the police department until then. And she said there is no crackdown on overtime expenditures.

“Overtime is always something we monitor closely,” she said. “I have issued no directives to not approve overtime. Nothing has changed.”

Payroll is a top expense in Miami-Dade government, accounting for 35 cents of every dollar in Levine Cava’s $12.7 billion budget this year.

And with a slowing real estate market, additional expenses tied to a new courthouse and other projects, and dried-up federal dollars causing growing budget anxiety in Miami-Dade government for next year, overtime is bound to get more attention as a problematic expense as Levine Cava prepares to submit her next budget proposal in the summer. Levine Cava’s 2025 countywide budget predicts future annual deficits between $52 million and $154 million starting in 2026.

“What we are going to be talking about next June and July is cutting services or raising taxes,” Commissioner Eileen Higgins said at the Dec. 3 commission meeting. “It’s worrisome to me.”

Across county government, overtime accounted for 14 cents of every dollar paid to employees last year — $330 million out of a $2.4 billion payroll expense.

Of all the county agencies, Miami-Dade’s jail system relies the most on overtime. It paid about 23 cents in overtime for every dollar of pay. Like transit, jail administrators blame staffing shortages for the heavy reliance on premium overtime pay.

Juan Diasgranados, a spokesperson for the Corrections Department, said the jail system has about 90% of its positions filled, and vacancies are down from 116 positions last year in a workforce of about 3,000 to 77. Last year, Corrections spent about $63 million on overtime.

“Many correctional agencies around the nation are faced with staffing and hiring challenges,” Diasgranados said, adding that Miami-Dade Corrections “is committed to enhancing our recruitment and retention efforts.”

The Department of Transportation and Public Works ended 2023 in a close second place for overtime expenditures, spending $62 million, representing about 23% of its payroll cost.

Davis, the maintenance supervisor, accounted for a teeny portion of that outlay with his $204,000 in overtime pay. The Herald requested a chance to talk to Davis through Transportation and Public Works, but an interview was not offered.

Pay stub summaries and other documents provided by the department show Davis usually worked double shifts, frequently at night when Miami-Dade pays extra. Records from January to October show Davis worked 231 days. Of those, the records showed Davis working at least 16 hours for 199 days.

Mendieta, the agency spokesperson, said Transportation and Public Works is working on reducing overtime expenses by cross-training employees to be able to fill in when staffing is thin and closer monitoring for individuals with excessive overtime hours on their pay stubs. He said Davis was flagged for excessive overtime but that he’s also one of the supervisors willing to take on overtime for maintenance projects when others won’t.

Mendieta said overtime remains a vital part of keeping the transit system running.

“Despite active recruitment efforts and a training class currently in progress,” he said in a statement, “the limited number of trainees has meant that existing staff has had to routinely work overtime to meet stringent safety and maintenance needs.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 5:00 AM.