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Cook County Board President John Stroger has put forth a proposal that would prohibit any employee from working more than 20 hours a week in overtime unless there was an emergency, following disclosures that more than 100 workers last year each made $50,000 or more in extra pay.

Stroger's resolution is meant to send a message to both county managers and taxpayers that he wants excessive overtime costs brought under control in an effort to clamp down on spending.

"I have repeatedly been saying, `This should have better control and people should not work too many hours,'" said Stroger, who will present the resolution Tuesday to the County Board. "My point has been if a person works too many hours, a person--he or she--becomes ineffectual."

Stroger's action comes a week after the Tribune reported that the county spent $76.7 million in overtime last year, up from $32 million in 1996, including $187,500 to one nurse on top of her $92,700 salary.

Six security guards at Stroger Hospital more than doubled their salaries with overtime last year, as did a janitor at Provident Hospital who made a total of $80,000. Twenty-five guards at Cook County Jail also made at least $25,000 in overtime in 2004.

The county has grappled for years with escalating overtime expenses, particularly at its Bureau of Health Services, where the new chief has instituted new rules in an effort to control costs. The health bureau, which Stroger controls, accounted for nearly three-fourths of overtime expenditures last year.

The employee topping the list in 2004 was Usha Patel, an advanced practice nurse at Oak Forest Hospital, who worked 2,746 hours of overtime in addition to her regular duties.

`Not all for the money'

Reached by telephone Monday, Patel said the decision to work overtime should be left to individual nurses who know whether they are too tired.

"We are very good, dedicated nurses," she said. "If you are sick, you want one of us."

Patel, stressing that she was not criticizing Stroger's resolution, said a nursing shortage has made it necessary for many nurses to work overtime, driven by the need to care for patients.

"It's not all for the money," Patel said. "It's for the safety of the patient. You need trained nurses to do what we do. It's not like you are working with machines. You are working with human beings and their families."

County officials have routinely cited the nationwide nursing shortage when questioned about overtime.

The county made a recent agreement with City Colleges to attract and train nurses. And Stroger said Monday that he is stressing to health bureau chief Dr. Daniel Winship the need to make recruitment a top priority.

Under the resolution, an employee's overtime hours would be limited to 20 in a seven-day period. Exceptions could be made in cases of emergencies.

The resolution does not define what constitutes an emergency, although it says overtime could only be granted in such situations with the written authorization of a bureau chief or an elected official. Also under the resolution, supervisors would provide detailed bi-monthly reports about staffing levels. Finance personnel would be assigned to closely monitor overtime within each department and sign off, along with a supervisor, on any extra work offered in advance.

The resolution states that supervisors and managers would be "held accountable for unauthorized overtime expenditures within" their departments. However, it does not spell out any consequences for violations of the resolution.