LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- From the people who treat injuries on the street to the very dispatchers answering your 911 calls, we found some city employees doubling their salaries with overtime.

The top maker of overtime in 2006 in all of Louisville is a dispatcher who works in this MetroSafe call center. The reason? This department right now has 26 vacancies that need to be filled. She made so much more in overtime, the mayor had this to say: “She makes more money than I’m making!”

And he's right. The mayor makes $99,000 a year. Dispatcher Geraldine Grider pulled in $62,000 in overtime last year. With a base salary of nearly $43,000, her total was $104,802 -- more than doubling her salary.

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Grider told us she works 3 a.m.-7 p.m., almost every day. Her bosses are aware of the overtime.

“This is someone who is not a problem employee,” says EMA Director Doug Hamilton. “If she chooses to take advantage of that, then I’m OK with that.”

But should someone answering emergency calls from the public be working so many hours? Is there concern over fatigue?

“Ordinarily you would when someone is working long hours, but again, with someone who has demonstrated over the past years they can work that many hours and not come to our attention, I don't think its an issue here,” Hamilton says.

But Gary Allen disagrees. He's a former 911 dispatcher and supervisor with 20 years experience, now the editor of Dispatch magazine, a monthly publication for public safety professionals. He's written extensively about dispatcher overtime and fatigue and had this to say about the overtime of the dispatcher here:

“At that moment, that second, a public safety dispatcher is the only link to help, and one little mistake, a number, a street name, could jeopardize a quick response,” he says. “To work that much overtime, you are oblivious to the clock, working nights, weekends, holidays, with little time off.”

And that's why dispatcher Grider told us off camera that she's making so much money: she says she's trying to boost her retirement payout by sacrificing her lifestyle now. She believes she's responsive as she can be, enjoys the work and fatigue has not been a factor. Three other dispatchers were listed in the top ten.

“There is a tipping point where you have enough overtime that you need to hire an extra person,” says the mayor.

“We're short of personnel.” EMS Supervisor Rocky Johnson was third on the list of overtime makers last year, and is second behind Grider this year. We showed him the list of where he stands. He nearly doubled his $52,000 a year salary by clocking in $45,500 in overtime. He stresses one point: “That overtime is not doing supervisory duties. Its primarily from street coverage as a paramedic.”

EMS is down nearly 30 positions, even though response times are considered good and under the national average.

“Every inch of Rocky's overtime is in a vehicle responding to patients who need immediate patient care,” says Dr. Neal Richmond.

But when it comes to public safety, Gary Allen again disagrees. “Fatigue and stress takes their toll on EMS workers and one mistake could give a patient a different amount of medication and that certainly could be a problem.”

So, how many actual hours does this overtime represent? For Grider, she worked 1,845 in 2006. That’s equivalent to working 40 hours a week for 46 weeks. There are 52 weeks in a year. Rocky Johnson worked: 1,273 of overtime.

When we told the head of the local union that represents these workers those numbers, Denny Norris said, “Everyone should be concerned about that.” He said this was not good for anyone to work that many hours.

In the meantime, MetroSafe dispatch will bring in 11 new employees to fill vacancies in May. EMS plans to fill 20 positions by the end of next month. Both moves will ease overtime.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.