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While it's an attention grabbing headline, overall, OT pay only was 10.9% of payroll costs. You could argue they should hire more to bring down OT costs and reduce burnout from overtime, but with pretty generous pensions that most can take at age 50 (w/20+ years of service), more employees mean more retirement costs that would exceed the cost of overtime even at those eye-popping dollar amounts.
There were plenty of articles a few years back about firefighters or LEOs taking their pension and then signing up with an agency in a nearby city and then getting pretty good salaries plus a hefty pension.
Can't fault them for working the system to maximize their earnings. It's a tough job, grueling work, and dangerous to boot.
Some ways to reduce costs would be to staff a bit more to avoid overtime/reduce burnout, while also reducing pension benefits or pushing out the eligibility age, keeping disability benefits generous, and have clauses to suspend pension draws if fully employed before say age 65.
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