Keller Orders Review of Robotman's Overtime Pay
Mayor Tim Keller has ordered a review of Robotman Simon Drobik's overtime pay and is limiting the amount of overtime pay that the police department's public information officer can collect in the future.
“Under the Mayor’s direction, we will do a comprehensive review to ensure hours claimed are accurate and properly accounted for,” mayoral Communications Director Alicia Manzano told ABQReport in an email Tuesday. “Officer Drobik’s overtime hours will also be limited moving forward and the Department will cover some of the PIO duties using other resources."
So far this year, Drobik, who is a patrolman first class with a pay rate of $31.50 an hour, has been paid $154,418, according to city payroll records. Of that, $88,946 has come from various types of overtime, and $36,676 from his regular pay.
Here's a look at Drobik's year-to-date earnings:
It means that Drobik has made more than twice as much in overtime as he has from his regular pay, and it means that, on average, Drobik has been working 100 hours a week since the beginning of the year.
So far this year there have been only four days in which Drobik, one of APD's public information officers and an hourly employee, has not billed the public for working. Drobik appears to have worked while on vacation, and while on paid time off, and on one occasion he billed the public for 26 hours of work in a single 24 hour day, according to city of Albuquerque payroll records.
And in one two-week pay period, Drobik billed APD for an astounding 275.66 hours of work. That apparently included 84 hours of overtime, 57 hours of regular pay, seven hours of chief's overtime and 22 hours of something called contract based overtime. But while putting in more than 160 hours of regular work and overtime, Drobik still managed to get 10 hours of holiday pay and 13 hours of paid leave, according to payroll records.
Albuquerque Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos has failed to respond to two emails from ABQReport asking who at APD has been approving Drobik's time sheets and overtime hours.
In the past, Gallegos has said that Drobik is basically working two jobs at APd, one as a patrol officer and the other as the PIO.