DeKalb Water Workers Clock Marathon Overtime

8/10/2019 DeKalb Water Workers Clock Marathon Overtime

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DeKalb water workers clock marathon overtime

Long hours raise safety, cost concernsUpdated: 6:00 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, 2014 | Posted: 12:00 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014

By Johnny Edwards- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Think your work days are long? Try pulling the hours clocked by DeKalb Countys top overtime

earners.

A handful of pipe crew workers and supervisors in the water department nearly doubled their pay

last year by logging marathon hours at time-and-a-half rates. Their time sheets show back-to-back

shifts 17 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours at a stretch with gaps in between that hardly leave time for a

decent nights sleep, an analysis of overtime records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found.

+ JOHN SPINK / AJC

A DeKalb County Watershed crew repairs a ruptured water main that shut down heavily-traveled Clairmont Road and

left several hundred residents ... Read More

They operate heavy equipment, drive heavy trucks and deal in mud and asphalt. Yet theyve

sometimes gone weeks upon weeks without a day off, pulling some of their longest hours on

weekends and holidays.

A crew supervisor worked 111 hours one week, then 59 hours the next, records show. Another man

worked every holiday last year and once worked 32 days in a row. Another worker averaged 65 hours

per week, with never a vacation day.

Safety experts say that if the employees are truly working such hours, managers are being recklessly

irresponsible. Theyre putting workers and the public at risk for accidents. Whats more, the county is

paying excessive costs for frazzled employees who arent as productive.


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+ BOB ANDRES

A DeKalb County Watershed crew digs up a portion of Covington Highway as they worked to fix the broken main in ...

Read More

Those are brutal schedules, National Safety Council president and CEO Deborah Hersman said.

Most of us, we work in a job that, when we get tired, the spellcheck will correct any of our mistakes.

But they work in jobs where if they make a mistake it could result in death or injury.

Others question the accuracy of time cards in a department that has been plagued by corruption.

Atlanta labor law attorney Gary Kessler said DeKalb officials should be held accountable for not

reeling in grossly padded hours. Nobody works those hours. It defies common sense, Kessler

said.

Water department managers insist the long hours are real. They are the consequence, they say, of an

aging pipe system incessantly springing leaks, winter storms that make pipe problems worse, and the

countys elected leaders slashing a quarter of their operations workforce as a cost-cutting measure

four years ago, part of a countywide reduction in force. DeKalb is under federal mandate to make

hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs to its system, and that includes speedily responding to pipe

bursts and sewage leaks.


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+

DeKalb County Watershed Management employees use time clocks with fingerprint scans to punch in and out ofwork. The county started ... Read More

The work did not get reduced in the field, said Charles Lambert, Watershed Managements

assistant director over operations. My staff got reduced.

Watershed has never asked the County Commission to approve more positions, though. Lambert

said the 2010 edict ended the discussion, and paying overtime is cheaper than hiring new workers to

cover those hours. But he also said the department is perpetually short-handed, struggling with high

turnover and a limited pool of applications because pay is low yet the jobs require specialized

qualifications.

Whatever the cause, Watersheds director acknowledged the county shouldnt have men and women

working to the bone. We do not like for people to work weeks without a day off, Director James

Chansler said.


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Antonio James, a senior crew worker for DeKalb County Watershed, nearly doubled his pay last year through

overtime. That topped his ... Read More

I intend for that to be changed, he said, citing an ongoing contract with an outside consultant to

improve department efficiency.

Exhausted behind the wheel?

Watershed managers say theyre running a 24/7 operation, and long hours go with the job.

+


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Through overtime, Eric Rivers, a crew supervisor CDL, got an 84% boost in pay last year. He regularly worked six

days ... Read More

But studies have linked long shifts and overtime with increased injuries, weight gain, alcohol abuse

and a nose dive in productivity, according to the Centers for Disease Controls National Institute for

Occupational Safety and Health.

Sleep-deprived workers also tend to make more mistakes. Going more than 17 hours without sleep

can impair ones judgment as bad as being intoxicated, research has shown.

Thats among the reasons that federal regulations limit work hours for airline pilots, locomotive

engineers and nuclear power plant workers, among other occupations. Commercial truck drivers

who cross state lines cant be on the road after 11 straight hours of driving or 14 straight hours of

working.

+

Huburne DePeazer, who was a crew supervisor CDL for DeKalb County Watershed, got an 87% boost in pay through

overtime. One ... Read More

Watershed supervisors drive commercial-sized trucks and operate backhoes and bulldozers that turn

earth around gas lines, but there are no limits on work hours for public utility workers.

So long as DeKalb County pays its hourly workers time and a half for anything above 40 hours in a

week, even brutally long hours are legal. However, Margaret Spence, a Florida-based human

resources consultant, said an argument could be made in a complaint to the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration that extraordinary work hours create a hazardous work environment.

I just think that its unconscionable to have people working that way, said Spence, who heads

Douglas Claims & Risk Consultants in West Palm Beach. What happens if this person whos


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responding to a water main break gets into an auto accident because he dozes off while hes riding to

respond to that call?

+

Overtime boosted last years pay for senior crew worker Larry Jackson by 95%. He regularly put in at least six days ...

Read More

The prospect of accidents, as well as swelling costs, prompted Atlanta Watershed Commissioner Jo

Ann Marcina this year to rearrange weekend shifts to try to reduce overtime. She said she was

alarmed to find that about 100 pipe crew workers overtime averaged 50 percent above their basepay.

If we are working that set of people that much, then they will have fatigue, Macrina said. Im

concerned about injury, and Im also concerned that theyre burning out.

Lambert said DeKalb depends on supervisors to call for replacement workers, if someone is

struggling with fatigue.

burne DePeazer's time card

ere in the world was Huburne DePeazer

Kalb Watershed workers' timecards

Were always concerned for their safety, Lambert said. But its not an individual out there. Its a

crew out there.

But he also said that relief crews are hard to come by and a repair job cant be abandoned midway

when customers are waiting for water.


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Somebody can get 24, 48 hours because he aint got no relief, DePeazer said. You cant just pack

the truck up and load the tractor up and leave the job. Youd be terminated. Youd be responsible for

somebody getting hurt. You cant leave the citizens without water.

System can be abused

At first, department managers told the AJC that no employee was being paid for hours they didnt

work, even though a time fraud scandal rocked the department just two years ago. Three Watershed

employees were accused of falsifying overtime records and splitting the extra pay with the

departments lead payroll administrator, who was charged with racketeering.

Another Watershed worker exposed the scheme, alerting DeKalb County Police.

As a new safeguard, employees now must scan their fingerprints to clock in and out, and foremens

reports verify that theyre on the job with their crews throughout their shifts, Lambert said.

The department last year also started equipping water crew trucks with computer systems, similar tothe kind in police patrol cars, that track where they are and what theyre doing and move them on

and off jobs faster, Watershed director Chansler said.

But the departments safeguards arent airtight, the AJC found.

Court records show that on two occasions earlier this year, DePeazer was at the DeKalb County

courthouse filing and receiving court papers at the same times that water department records reflect

he was working at job sites miles away.

On Jan. 31, he was recorded as working until about 10:30 a.m. at department headquarters, then

working at a job site in Stone Mountain the next two hours. Yet he filed a paternity case against themother of two of his children at the Decatur courthouse around 11 a.m.

Then on March 19, when he was clocked in, he was back at the courthouse picking up papers at 11:30

a.m. That days foremans report says he was in Chamblee at the time, and after a half-hour lunch

break around noon, he was at a job site in Tucker.

DePeazer was foreman both days.

When the AJC tried to question him about the discrepancies, DePeazer said he was at work and too

busy to talk.

I dont know how that happened. I cant recall that, he said. Thats all I got to say.

The county fired him in September after he went on an unpaid leave of absence for urgent family

business, but the department discovered he was working as a MARTA bus driver, personnel records

show. His first day with MARTA was July 28, the day after he worked his last shift for DeKalb.


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After the AJC pointed out DePeazers records to county officials, Chansler said theres no foolproof

way to be sure all hours are legitimate.

People can do things that you dont know about, he said. We dont have a bodyguard watching

them all the time.

Upon seeing records of another man who worked a nearly 25-hour overnight shift, followed by a

17-hour shift, then, after a 5-hour break, worked 12 hours, County Commissioner Kathie

Gannon said, Thats humanly impossible, dont you think?

Theyre either sleeping at work or thats a lot of Red Bull, she said.

Reeling in the waste

DeKalbs water department has been a focus of controversy for years. The system is currently

undergoing $1.35 billion in upgrades about $700 million of which the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency mandated after more than 800 raw sewage spills were reported in a five-yearspan.

To help pay for the work, the county raised billing rates 16 percent in 2011, then imposed 11 percent

hikes each year since. Meanwhile, a special purpose grand jury report found the department mired in

corruption as the money flowed through, including allegations of bribery, bid rigging and contract

padding.

Its investigation led to corruption charges against suspended CEO Burrell Ellis, whose criminal case

sputtered into a mistrial last month.

Chansler was brought on in September 2013, soon after the special grand jury report went public.With help from outside consultant Veolia Water, hes been trying to fix internal problems and

improve efficiency.

The company, hired in a $3.4 million contract earlier this year, is reviewing operations, including

overtime. The contract aims to save $8 million per year.

Thats what were trying for, is a more efficient work force, Chansler said. I would invite you to

come back a year from now, after our process improvements.

Gannon, the county commissioner, said Watershed needs limits on how many days and hours a

person can work consecutively.

Thats the real question, she said. After theyve put in a 17-hour day, what are we getting for that

time and a half?

Data specialist Sean Sposito contributed to this article.


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DeKalbs top OT earners: How they did it

In 2013, nine Watershed Management workers boosted their pay by 80 percent or more through

overtime. Meet some of the highest earners:

Antonio James, Crew Worker Senior

Base Wages: $36,225

OT earnings: $34,807

Boost: 96 percent

How he did it: He worked every holiday, and after working Labor Day, he worked another 31 days

straight. Other times he put in 20, 19 and 18 consecutive days. During the stretch after Labor Day, he

put in a 16-hour day ending at midnight, then went back on the clock the next morning at 7 a.m.

He then worked 20 hours, took 3 hours off, then stayed clocked in 16 hours on Thursday, almost

17 hours on Friday, almost 15 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday. He then worked every

day through the next two weekends.

Years past: 80 percent boost in 2011; 70 percent boost in 2012.

Eric Rivers, Crew Supervisor CDL

Base wages: $45,151

2013 OT earnings: $38,064

Boost: 84 percent

How he did it: Unlike some others, his accumulation of overtime hours was steady, without the

marathon shifts. He regularly worked six days per week with 10-, 14- and 16-hour days, and

sometimes he worked straight through the weekend. He also worked every holiday.

Years past: In 2011, Rivers earned the most overtime any DeKalb employee: $49,704 a 110 percent

boost. 87 percent boost in 2012.

Huburne DePeazer, Crew Supervisor CDL (fired in September)

Base wages: $38,348

2013 OT earnings: $33,365

Boost: 87 percent

How he did it: He repeatedly put in ultra-long hours, took minimal breaks and went weeks at a time

without days off. In January, he worked 13 consecutive days, putting in 111 hours one week then 59

hours the week after. In July, starting on a Sunday morning, he worked 18 hours, until 2 a.m. After

just 5 hours off, he came back Monday morning for a nearly 12-hour stretch. The next weekend, he


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DeKalb Water Workers Clock Marathon Overtime

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