House Bill 266 would mandate any salary or wages earned from additional required work hours be factored into all county and municipal police and firefighter pension plans.
The bill’s sponsor, State. Rep Cyndie Romer, says it does not include voluntary overtime for things like carnivals or sporting events, but sometimes due to staffing issues, officers are needed outside their regular working hours.
“The agency’s preference is always going to be to get volunteers, but at times, they have to order people to do it because they don’t have enough volunteers, and that pay does not go into the calculation of their pension," Romer said.
She says the bill will affect 44 municipal and county agencies throughout the state, but will not apply to state police officers.
“In general, with workforce shortages, which obviously hits municipalities as well – I don’t necessarily know that it’s happening at increased measures, but it could. So the more they have labor shortages, the more this can be a requirement for their existing staff."
Romer says a pension coordinator brought the issue to her attention, wanting to ensure police officers and firefighters are being fairly compensated for their hours worked.
There is no fiscal impact attached to the bill, but Romer says agencies will be given adequate time to update their timekeeping systems to reflect the change if the measure is passed.
The bill has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
