Mayor Adams lays down overtime fraud for city uniformed services following NYPD OT sex scandal

Mayor Adams is cracking down on excessive overtime within the NYPD, FDNY and the city’s Department of Health and Safety — just days after allegations surfaced that former NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey was sex-swapping for overtime, the Daily News has learned. .

In an internal order written Monday and posted online Thursday, Adams ordered his first deputy mayor, chief of staff, deputy mayor for public safety and the Office of Management and Budget to oversee overtime spending by the city’s uniformed services and provide monthly reports to ensure that the the agency was locked in its annual forecast overtime.

Overtime reduction targets are still being worked out, an Adams spokeswoman said Friday.

Adams also ordered each department to limit the number of people they can authorize to work overtime and provide a complete list of their names to the mayor’s office.

“Regulating the use of overtime, including paid compensatory time, shall be the sole responsibility of the commissioner of each agency,” Adams wrote in his order.

These safeguards were announced a few days after NYPD Lt. Special Assignment Teacher Epps, one of the highest paid overtime workers in the department, accused Maddrey of sexually harassing her and forcing her to perform “unwanted sexual acts” in exchange for overtime pay.

In a complaint filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Epps alleges Maddrey repeatedly sought sex from her “in order to obtain overtime opportunities at work.”

Maddrey resigned late last Friday when the lawsuit was filed, sparking an uproar at the highest levels of the department.

After this scandal, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch removed the Head of the Department of the Interior Miguel Iglesias from his position at the weekend.

On Friday, 10 police officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Division – including two lieutenants, two sergeants and five detectives – were transferred to other positions as the department’s cleanup continues, documents related to The News show.

Adams did not mention Maddrey or the scandal in his order, which now mandates the commissioners of the NYPD, FDNY, DOC and DSNY to “review overtime workers in person within their agencies, at least quarterly, to ensure that overtime is distributed equitably and to avoid abuse.” that may exist.”

“The city is facing financial challenges that require constant review of agency spending,” Adams noted. “Regulation of overtime is essential to good government and overtime should only be authorized in those cases where it is necessary and appropriate.”

Overtime spending has soared for the NYPD during the Adams administration and for the first time topped $1 billion in the last fiscal year, which ended July 1.

At a City Council hearing in March, former Police Commissioner Edward Caban admitted that, in the eight months of the fiscal year before the start of the summer, the department had budgeted overtime by more than $100 million — more than 50% more than they expected.

At the time, Caban said overtime money was being used to put more police officers on the subways to combat the rise of underground crime.

In addition to overtime spending, Adams has pulled the NYPD, FDNY and Department of Sanitation out of previous rounds of citywide budget cuts that have had a major impact on other agencies, including libraries, which were forced to end Sunday services altogether as a result.

City Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan said Friday that Adams took action on the overtime use of the NYPD after the allegations against Maddrey came to light.

Brannan (D-Brooklyn) said: “It shouldn’t take a scandal to get everyone’s attention. “The Council has been looking for answers about the mismanagement of the NYPD budget for years in order to find excuses for protests and demonstrations. Sometimes [the NYPD] he even blamed the Council for running away from using extra time!

“This is not a rank and file issue,” said Brannan, who added that he hopes Tisch will take the overtime seriously. “This comes from high culture.”

In his complaint, Epps and his attorney Eric Sanders allege that Maddrey and other NYPD supervisors were able to manipulate overtime pay lists to “hide the true number of overtime abusers during the administration of former Police Commissioner Edward Caban and the current administration.”

Top overtime earners who never appeared on the overtime list include Maddrey, new Department Chief John Chell and NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, the complaint notes.

A Daily News report published in November named Epps as the highest paid member of the NYPD with a salary of $406,515 – $118,203 more than the $285,313 former Commissioner Caban made in the 2024 fiscal year.

Epps’ overtime immediately raised eyebrows since she worked in Maddrey’s office as a support worker and was not in the field or responding to emergencies.

The News Report also revealed 1,600 hours of overtime claimed by Epps, earning him $204,000. Sources said the department will investigate Epps’ salary, and the police chief was suspended on Dec. 18, two days after he submitted his retirement request.

Epps’ resignation came seven months before his 20th year with the department when he would have received full retirement benefits.

A news analysis of his salary shows his pension would be at least $150,000 a year before tax and possibly closer to $232,000.

Because of the allegations against Maddrey, Sanders fired off a letter to Commissioner Tisch’s office, demanding that Epps be reinstated to retire as he had planned.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation are investigating allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, as well as allegations that overtime pay lists were altered, officials said.

At an NYPD promotion ceremony Monday, Commissioner Tisch said he would accept nothing less than “moral leadership” on the heels of allegations of sexual harassment.

“Leadership is the bedrock of the NYPD — good, strong, disciplined leadership,” Tisch said during an event at NYPD headquarters.

Despite the order limiting the use of overtime, Adams made it clear that nothing would prohibit “the use of overtime to meet the needs of emergency situations.”

In the event of an incident or incident similar to the large number of protests following the death of George Floyd, the agencies are expected to reduce “non-emergency overtime” to compensate “if these emergency costs cause the agency to overspend on its program without prior notice,” Adams wrote. at his command.

With Rocco Parascandola