Baltimore leaders say the total overtime compensation for city employees — caused by high vacancy rates in a half-dozen city agencies — could rack up a $150 million bill for the 2025 calendar year.

Figures presented Thursday by City Council President Zeke Cohen show the city already spent about $39 million in overtime costs through April, meaning the expected total is between $115 million and $150 million for the entire year. The city spent $114 million on overtime in 2023 and $139 million in 2024, according to Cohen.

While city budgets run on July-through-June fiscal years and not regular calendar years, just $76.7 million was set aside for overtime expenses in fiscal 2025. Mayor Brandon Scott’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal sets aside $89.5 million for overtime, according to a presentation by Baltimore Budget Director Laura Larsen. When agencies exceed those budgets, the council retroactively appropriates funds, which one member called a “bad-faith” way of operating.

Scott’s office did not immediately respond to a question asking why his budget did not set aside more money for overtime expenses given the high totals in recent years.

Councilman Mark Conway referenced a Baltimore Sun article about BCFD paramedic David Lunsford, whose overtime hours helped him earn $358,586 last year to become the city’s highest-paid employee. He said the situation proves the city’s overtime levels are “clearly not financially sustainable.”

Larsen replied that while the fire department has made progress in filling firefighter vacancies, hiring paramedics remains a problem during a national shortage of EMS workers.

Vacancies drive overtime: Larsen said six city agencies collectively account for 95% of all overtime spending: The Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore City Fire Department, Department of Public Works (DPW), Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of General Services, and Department of Recreation and Parks. The spending levels are driven by high staffing vacancy rates within these agencies, 37% of which are for positions that have not been filled in 18 months or more, according to Larsen.

“We call these positions ‘phantom positions’ because they exist on paper, but are apparently unlikely to be filled by real people,” Cohen said, putting the number of current vacant positions that report directly to the city’s administration at 530.

Larsen’s presentation showed a clear correlation between vacancies and overtime, as five agencies accounted for 73% of all vacant positions across the city: The police department, fire department, DPW, DOT and Baltimore City Health Department. Despite the vacancies, Larsen said the city added 126 new positions to ease during fiscal 2025. Scott’s fiscal 2026 budget recommends 84 new positions for funding within these agencies, according to the budget director.

“We continue to fund those positions in the budget because we want to get them filled … and it’s also a better way to provide service,” Larsen said, noting that some vacancies — especially within the health department — are funded by “various grants” and not the city directly.

Council questioning: During Thursday’s hearing, City Council members grilled Larsen and other city leaders about the impact of such overspending.

Councilman Ryan Dorsey raised concerns about the council’s practice of retroactively appropriating funds to cover deficits caused by overtime spending in city agencies. He asked Larsen if there are “consequences” for agencies that exceed their designated budgets, to which she responded that budgets are managed through the city administrator and agency directors.

“This agency just does whatever it’s doing, that ends up coming on the back of somebody else and that’s not what we (originally) approved,” Dorsey said. “That’s a dishonest, bad-faith way of operating after the fact.”

During an exchange with the Baltimore Department of Human Resources (DHR), Councilman Mark Parker suggested the levels of overtime pay had become “part of the retention strategy” among fire department employees — a concern later echoed by Cohen. DHR Deputy Director Tonya Brinkley replied she could “not agree or disagree” with Parker and noted her department often matches outside offers to keep well-performing employees.

Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.