Sep 25
2025
Overtime straining Buffalo’s budget
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Two-and-a-half months into the city’s current fiscal year, overtime for Buffalo’s police and fire departments is on track to run $10 million over budget, threatening once again to push the city into deficit.
That’s a smaller cost overrun than the city has seen in previous years, but nonetheless a problem for a city whose growing costs, stagnant revenues, and lack of reserve funds leave officials no room for error as they implement this year’s $622 million spending plan.
Police and fire headquarters in downtown Buffalo. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.
Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski, who chairs the Council’s Finance Committee, noted the city is already spending more money than it takes in, according to the latest reports from the city comptroller. High overtime costs will only make that situation worse.
“Large overages will strain an already reduced cash flow for the city,” he told Investigative Post.
In the seven paychecks issued since the city’s fiscal year began on July 1, Buffalo firefighters have racked up more than $2.8 million in overtime, according to city payroll records.
In one regard, that’s good news. In the same period in 2024, the fire department spent $3.4 million on overtime. So it would appear the cash-strapped city, facing chronic budget deficits driven in part by police and fire overtime costs, achieved some savings over the summer. That was a goal of Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon, who in April told Investigative Post his administration aimed “to better manage OT spending” through “improved oversight.”
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe bad news is the fire department’s overtime likely will blow a hole in the budget by the end of the fiscal year anyway.
The 2025-26 adopted budget, which runs through the end of next June, allows the fire department $6.75 million in overtime for uniformed personnel — a class that includes chiefs, captains, lieutenants and firefighters, but excludes commissioners and civilian employees such as dispatchers and office staff. That’s a tick up from the $6.5 million allotted for overtime in last year’s fire department budget.
However, the department in fact spent double its allotment last year — over $13 million, according to city records.
Even if the department keeps up the overtime savings it’s achieved over the last couple months — a more than 17 percent decrease over last year’s expenditures — it’s still on track to spend nearly $11 million.
That’s a $4 million discrepancy.
The fire department’s top overtime recipients since July 1 include:
- Lt. Ernest Gilliam, Ladder 7: $36,412
- Capt. Patrick Blake, Ladder 6: $32,085
- Division Chief Thomas Meldrum, Engine 40: $31,682
- Lt. Albert LeClerc, Engine 22: $30,919
- Lt. Martin Barrett, Rescue One: $30,135
Police OT also over budget
A similar story is playing out in the police department.
Since July 1, uniformed police have taken home more than $4.3 million in overtime. That, too, represents a savings over the same time period in 2024 — a decrease of about 10 percent.
But again, that’s not likely to keep police within their overtime budget for the year.
The police department spent $18.5 million on overtime last year — double its budget, just like the fire department. Project onto that number a 10 percent reduction across the 2025-26 budget year and you get $16.6 million.
That’s $6 million more than the Scanlon administration and the Common Council allowed in this year’s budget.
The police department’s leading overtime recipients since July 1 include:
- Lt. Michael Long, B District: $39,633
- Capt. Patrick Humiston of the Internal Affairs Division: $35,146
- Det. Richard Cruz, Gun Violence Unit: $34,661
- Det. William Drabik, Casino Unit: $32,964
- Det. William Rezabek, Homicide Squad: $32,462
Not a new problem
Lowballing overtime costs has been a regular practice in City Hall. Between 2021 and 2024, the city spent $52 million more on overtime than it budgeted. That was across all city departments, though police and fire were responsible for the lion’s share of the cost and the budget overruns.
The 2024-25 budget, which ended June 30, continued the trend.
Last year the city spent $43.6 million on overtime, with police and fire accounting for three-quarters of the cost. However, the Council and former Mayor Byron Brown budgeted only half that amount, leaving a $21.8 million gap.
To make up the difference, and to address other budget shortfalls, the Scanlon administration used $15 million in city reserves and $25 million in federal pandemic relief funds, most of which had been earmarked for other purposes.
Taken together, police and fire overtime are on track to blow a $10 million hole in this year’s spending plan. Again, that’s smaller than last year’s $16 million overrun, but it’s a hole nonetheless.
City officials have no money left to throw at the problem. The federal pandemic money has all been appropriated. All the city’s reserves are spent, except for the so-called “rainy day fund,” which is meant to keep city services functioning in the event of an emergency — a natural disaster or act of terrorism, for example, not fiscal mismanagement.
The cash flow issues noted by Nowakowski, the finance chair, in past years have been mitigated by the city school district’s robust cash reserves. When the city’s cash flow dips into the red this December, as predicted by the comptroller, the school district’s money will cover the city’s checks.
The city will repay the district at the end of the fiscal year, when its coffers are replenished with state aid, as well as “the infusion of cash anticipated from the sales of the parking ramps, occupancy tax, and tribal compact money,” Nowakowski said.
