Feb. 23--For 40 years, Steven Sparks came to work for the Houston Fire Department, often forgoing sick leave, vacation time or a holiday. When he finally retired as district chief last year, he claimed his reward: a $177,000 check on his way out the door.
That was the city's payment for all the days Sparks didn't use his available time off, but instead came to work even if he felt bad.
"Six mornings I called and told them I can't come to work because I'm too sick to work. I did that six times in 39 years," said Sparks, 59, who now works for another fire department. "I came to work (sick) because of the work ethic I grew up with."
Sparks is among 928 HFD employees who have been paid more than $57 million over the last six years in what is called termination pay, due when they retire or quit. And his six-figure payout is not a rarity -- 197 fire employees collected checks of more than $100,000 from 2008 to 2013, according to city payroll records.
The large severance payouts come at a time when the city administration is suing the firefighter's pension fund hoping to gain local negotiating power over the city's future contributions, as well as coping with a projected $8.5 million in unanticipated overtime.
Union officials defended the policy, saying it has saved the city the overtime costs of replacing firefighters who called in sick, took off holidays or went on vacations. One retired fire chief said termination pay was an attractive benefit decades ago, when firefighter pensions were 35 percent of their pay and could not be collected until age 50.
Critics say the policy of allowing public safety employees to accrue their leave time could lead to a financial crisis, since many currently are eligible to retire and would be owed sizable checks for their unused leave.
Political expert Sherri Greenberg found the payout numbers surprising.
"It's just you don't usually see that kind of large amounts," said Greenberg, director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Difficult to budget
Greenberg said city officials can't predict when firefighters will retire, making budgeting for the termination payments difficult.
"The employees are going to say, 'Look, it's mine. I worked, it was my holiday or vacation, my sick leave and I earned it,' " Greenberg said. "On the other hand, from a public financial management standpoint, it is very difficult to financially plan for that not knowing when people are going to retire."
State law allows firefighters in Houston and other large cities to accumulate their leave and collect a lump-sum payment. But some departments, including Dallas and Austin, pay less because of caps they have negotiated.
"We don't have (payments) at that high rate," said Battalion Chief Palmer Buck, with the Austin Fire Department. "We have caps on how much vacation and sick leave you can have the city buy back."
Buck said termination pay in Austin averaged $40,000 to $50,000 for most firefighters.
Houston Fire Chief Terry Garrison declined to comment and in a statement said the department has no control or input on termination pay.
Currently, HFD employees can accrue 90 days of vacation, eight days of sick leave a year that is matched by the city and unlimited number of holidays. Employees hired before September 1985 can choose to accrue an unlimited amount of sick leave at a rate of 15 days a year, according to HFD.
"Clearly, it is a budgetary strain," Mayor Annise Parker said of the payments, adding they have been part of the city's labor agreement with firefighters for decades.
The mayor acknowledged the city could attempt to negotiate a "use it or lose it" model common in private industry, limiting the amount of unused sick leave or vacation days. But that comes with another price, she said.
"You have to be careful how you implement that because then the firefighters would go out and then use it," she said, "and then you have to backfill (shifts) with overtime. So it's a complicated situation."
Unfunded liabilities
City Councilman Stephen Costello, who chairs the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, said the city is facing millions in future liabilities to public safety employees and is closely monitoring the number of workers who leave.
"This is a real bad thing," said Costello, referring to the unpredictability of future retirements. "The problem the city has is if you end up having a mass exodus of city employees who are eligible to retire, we have to pay them termination pay."
Costello noted that large numbers of police and firefighters already are eligible to retire, making city officials careful not to attempt changes in benefits that could trigger a wave of retirements.
According to budget presentations last June, 1,055 of the 3,790 firefighters were eligible to retire with at least 20 years on the job. That's about 28 percent of the department.
"We have to recognize the unfunded liability and be careful how we budget and anticipate when those funds are going to be needed," Costello said. "And be real careful as we move forward on making changes impacting employees, and recognize we could have a mass exodus of staff."
'Dedicated employees'
Bryan Sky-Eagle, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, Local 341, said he was not familiar with the amount of the payouts.
"All that jumps out to me is these guys were dedicated employees," Sky-Eagle said. "If they didn't call in sick and take vacation, they came in and worked every day."
He said the accrued leave was paid on the employee's usual hourly rate, and not overtime.
"The city, if he didn't show up, would have to pay time and a half," Sky-Eagle said. "We can't discount a very tangible benefit to the city and to the citizens because you, in effect, are paying less by not paying the overtime rate."
Another retired district chief, who asked that his name not be used, said the millions in termination pay stems from a chronic lack of adequate staffing, one that frequently prevented firefighters from taking time off.
"Our staff levels were such to where we were only able to let X number of people off, and when you're not able to let guys off, they're accumulating this time and they can't use it," said the former fire official, who received more than $100,000 when he retired last year. "We just can't say,'You know what, we're going to close this fire station and let everybody off.' We've got to man it 24/7."
Retired assistant chief William Barry, who left HFD in 2012, said the large payments are being collected primarily by firefighters who joined the department decades ago when a pension paid 35 percent of an employee's pre-retirement earnings.
Pension substitute
"The pension was going to be very small, so they depended on that large term check to get them a house or whatever. So people didn't take vacation, didn't take holidays, didn't call in sick. That's a whole different generation,'" said Barry.
The situation is different for officers with the Houston Police Department, which also has large numbers of officers eligible to retire.
Termination payments to officers who leave are not made in a lump sum. HPD officers who retire have agreed, in labor negotiations, to collect their severance pay through one of three "Phase Down" programs that continues their normal paychecks until accrued hours are paid off.
Officers also can elect to take a five-year payout of their termination package, according to police union officials.
The issue of Houston's termination pay for firefighters was reviewed by the state's highest court, whose justices ruled last year that the city had been shortchanging firefighters by millions of dollars.
More termination pay
The Texas Supreme Court ruling will increase future termination pay by several hundred thousand dollars per year, city officials estimate. The justices said the city should have included incentive pay -- stipends awarded for such things as being bilingual or for earning advanced certifications -- in calculating a firefighter's termination pay.
The ruling resulted in a $2.2 million payout to about 790 firefighters, and the cost of a companion case involving 270 firefighters still is being calculated, Assistant City Attorney Don Fleming said.
Sparks, whose check was the largest issued last year, said he feels like the city attempts to disparage employees who worked instead of taking leave and want to be paid those hours when they retire.
"Even though it's a savings to them, they act like you're robbing them because they have to pay you for the time (leave) they gave you," Sparks said. "To me, it looks like they're always looking for a scapegoat."
Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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