HITS THE JACKPOT

PRISON NURSE’S $153G TOPS IN N.Y.

ALBANY — An upstate prison nurse raked in a state-leading $153,708 in overtime in 2017, the Daily News has learned.

With the overtime on top of her base $63,293 salary, Janet Johnson, a nurse at Franklin Correctional Facility, received $217,000 in pay last year, according to records provided by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli’s office.

Johnson, who could not be reached for comment, worked 2,4451/2 hours of overtime last year.

That would mean if her regular work-hours are factored in, Johnson put in an average of 12 hours a day if she worked every day for a full year.

All told, 17 of the top 30 overtime earners recorded more than 2,000 extra hours last year, which would equate to at least 381/2 extra hours a week over 52 weeks, according to the records.

Two employees put in for more than 3,000 hours, including Desmond Lewis, a secure treatment aide at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.

Lewis is recorded having put in a state-high 3,597 extra hours, which equates to 10 hours a day every day for a full year on top of his regular workweek. With his workweek factored in, it means he was working more than 15 hours a day seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

With a base salary of $49,721, Lewis, who couldn’t be reached for comment, made $132,405 in overtime for total earnings of $182,126. His overtime money in 2017 was the sixth-highest among state workers.

Asked about the massive amounts of overtime Lewis and other state workers put in for last year, DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman acknowledged, “It raises red flags.” She said such “flags” are “routinely” reviewed.

Union officials have long argued that Gov. Cuomo’s push to freeze or downsize the state payroll is at odds with roundthe-clock staffing requirements at prisons and psychiatric hospitals, forcing a reliance on mandatory overtime.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision paid out the most in OT — $221 million, which was up 7.8% over 2016.

Thomas Mailey, a department spokesman, said the agency “approves overtime only when absolutely needed to address the needs of the facility and ensure its safe operation.”

Shannon Hutton, spokeswoman for the state Civil Service Employees Association, said it is doable for workers to put in 2,000 or more extra hours a year.

“While it is a lot of overtime, it is humanly possible to work that many overtime hours,” Hutton said. “It equates to an employee working a double shift, six days a week.”

She added that “considering these are 24-hour operations, it is not unusual for employees to work double shifts. State staffing is not to the level that would eliminate the need for overtime.”

Freeman, without speaking about specific employees, said some who are paid overtime are allowed to sleep while onsite.

There are other instances, she said, where people get paid to be on call, but may not be at their facilities.

All told, state overtime costs grew by 9.7% in 2017 over 2016.

The state paid out a record $761.2 million in extra pay, up from $694.2 million in 2016 and from $520.6 million paid out just five years ago.

The previous record was $716.1 million in 2015.

The increase in 2017 came after state OT actually dipped in 2016 by 3.1%, the first drop in years.

“Overtime pay at state agencies jumped almost 10% in 2017 and keeps creeping upwards,” DiNapoli said. “It is a challenge for state agencies to do more with fewer staff and tighter resources.”

He added that “state agencies need to make sure the overtime is justified and that employees are not clocking so many hours that they can’t do their work safely.”

The Daily News, under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, requested information from DiNapoli’s office on the state’s top 30 overtime earners and how much each agency paid out.

Of the top 30 overtime earners in state government, all made more than $109,000 in extra money over their base pay, the records show.

Most of the top overtime earners work either in prisons, mental hospitals or facilities for the developmentally disabled, all of which require around-the-clock staffing.

Denise Williams, a treatment assistant at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island, for the second year in a row ranked second in overtime. She made $151,808 on top of her $71,072 base salary.

Williams in 2015 was the state overtime leader, making $171,994 in extra pay.

Muriel Briggs, a worker at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, was third in 2017 with $146,921 in overtime earnings over her base salary of $98,848.

At a time when Cuomo has increased state police patrols (photo inset opposite page) in New York City, the law enforcement agency saw its overtime grow in 2017 by 55.2% over 2016. The agency paid out $74.2 million in OT in 2017, up from $47.8 million the prior year.

A Cuomo administration official said that “when state police becomes aware of potential threats, additional resources are deployed to critical locations as security may require. This includes potential targets in New York City such as bridges, tunnels, transit hubs and places of mass gatherings.”

After the Department of Corrections, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities paid out the second-highest amount of OT, $133.1 million — which was down half a percentage point from 2016.

The Office of Mental Health paid $109.1 million in overtime, which was flat from the previous year.

DiNapoli’s own office saw a 10.2% increase, paying out $3.7 million in OT, up from $3.4 million in 2016.

Twenty-seven agencies saw their overtime drop in 2017.

Cuomo budget spokesman Morris Peters said spending by state agencies is “no higher today than when the governor took office seven years ago.”

To increase spending on areas like schools and health care while adhering to his self-imposed 2% state spending hike cap, Cuomo has kept agency budgets flat in recent years.

“Most agencies are on pace to have fewer overtime hours than the prior fiscal year, and they all use overtime carefully and only when needed,” Peters said. “The alternative would be a larger, more bloated, more expensive and less efficient state bureaucracy that New York taxpayers simply can’t afford.”