The Madison Police Department reported that it spent $71,909 staffing the Mifflin Street block party last May, including more than $36,000 in unbudgeted expenses, according to a budget analysis presented Tuesday to the City Council.

According to the analysis, which detailed the overtime budget from April through June 2003, the block-party costs led to a 63 percent increase in overtime expenses when compared to year-to-date second-quarter costs from 2002 in the planned-events category.

Madison Police were budgeted $1,472,000 in overtime expenses for 2003, and the block party and peace rallies and protests last spring brought the overtime expenses to $634,648 through the end of June.

Madison Police Assistant Chief Charles Cole said budget analysts for the department estimated they would need to ask the City Council for another $250,000 in overtime funds, bringing the overtime budget for 2003 to $1.7 million.

“[The $250,000] is where we have to reconcile with the City Council. We went over budget again this year, but I’m not surprised. And we still have Halloween coming up,” Cole said.

Although the overtime expenses increased just 1.4 percent compared to 2002 costs through the second quarter, the number of overtime hours earned actually increased by 9 percent, from 35,288 overtime hours through the end of the second quarter in 2002 to 38,490 hours in 2003.

The reason the overtime expenses are low is due to the increased percentage of time taken as compensation rather than pay, according to Terri Genin, Madison Police Department budget analyst and author of the report.

Genin said police could use compensation time hours to collect wages later or use the hours for time off.

“They can bank hours earned up 150 hours and use them when they want to take a day off, if staffing that day permits,” Cole said.

According to the report, the pay-to-time ratio through the second quarter was .85, meaning for every $1 of compensation time earned, only 85 cents was paid. This results in current savings in overtime costs, but an increased liability for overtime comp-to-pay in the future.

Planned events like the Mifflin Street block party are grouped into the “demand-driven” category of the overtime budget, which accounts for 34 percent of the overtime hours through the second quarter of 2003.

Also included in the “demand-driven” category are “extraordinary events,” where the most significant overtime increase occurred. The “extraordinary events” overtime rose by 68 percent over the same quarter last year.

The spring peace rallies and protests earlier this year accounted for 32 percent of the 2,243 overtime “extraordinary event” hours.

“What we’ve done is ask for more overtime money in our operating budget proposal so we don’t run into problems next year,” Cole said. “Funding has increased a little each year, but nothing dramatic. Police department funding is still not at the level we need it to be at.”