WESTBROOK – Westbrook’s Finance Committee, taking its first crack at the city’s proposed 2013 municipal budget Monday, wasted little time voicing displeasure with the overtime costs at the Public Safety Department.

While Public Safety Director Michael Pardue presented several examples of how he has curbed the department’s spending, overtime – which adds up to more than $200,000 in the proposed 2013 budget – got the bulk of the attention Monday.

“You’ve done a pretty poor job of getting it down,” said City Councilor John O’Hara, noting that overtime was a problem during the 2012 budget process, too. “We asked you that last time, (and) it doesn’t seem to have sunk in.”

Pardue, police Capt. Tom Roth, Deputy Fire Chief Wayne Jones, and Communications Director Greg Hamilton all told the Finance Committee, which is composed of the City Council, that any overtime is either circumstantial, meaning it is mandated by an incident occurring at the end of a shift, or contractural, meaning the department is required to give overtime to meet staffing requirements set by collective bargaining agreements.

City Councilor Brendan Rielly said he could appreciate that an officer, firefighter or dispatcher in the middle of responding to a call for service cannot simply stop helping people because a shift is ending. But, he said, he wanted to see a breakdown of how often situations like that mandate overtime in a given period.

Right now, talks are under way between the city and its unions to negotiate new contracts, and city officials said Monday that language regarding staffing levels and overtime requirements would be reviewed.

But, Rielly stressed, no one on the council wants to see public safety put at risk to save a few dollars.

“We don’t ever want to jeopardize that,” Rielly said.

O’Hara said he agreed with Rielly, but was more blunt in his comments, demanding a detailed breakdown of when – and why – the department issued overtime pay.

“You’re managers. That’s what we hired you for,” O’Hara said.

The department’s total budget, including police, fire, dispatch, and general public safety building expenses, adds up to about $5.7 million. Pardue said the department is cutting two vacant positions on the fire department, but there are no other planned losses of personnel.

“We are not looking at laying off anyone,” Pardue said.

Pardue said his proposed 2013 budget also creates a new position, a building resource officer. This officer, Pardue said, would serve part time during peak hours in the Public Safety building on Main Street, helping anyone coming into the station to speak to an officer. The idea, Pardue said, would be to keep patrol officers on the road, where they belong, but still making the department available to the public.

The officer, Pardue said, would also help the department process the approximately 13,000 pieces of evidence and property that comes in to the department on a monthly basis.

Another change Pardue has proposed is a new review of manpower dispatched to routine calls. A policy in place requires that an ambulance and a fire truck respond to all medical calls, regardless of whether the fire truck and its personnel are needed to supplement the ambulance.

Pardue said Monday that he wants to change that, making it more of a judgment call. The goal, he said, is to prevent unnecessary usage of manpower and cut back on wear and tear on fire trucks. Pardue said some calls would still require a fire truck be sent with an ambulance, and he would allow the fire trucks to go when necessary.

“If it’s a borderline call, we’re certainly going to send the personnel that we need,” he said. “We’re going to err on the side of caution.”

The council will be examining the budgets of all departments before making its final vote on the 2013 budget in May.