Barbara Miller-Williams, like most Buffalo police officers, has racked up a lot of

overtime during her last three years en route to retirement and a fatter pension.

Last year, she worked more than $51,000 in overtime, boosting her total pay to nearly

$128,000 — double her base salary.

But Miller-Williams isn't just another Buffalo cop.

She's also the chairwoman of the Erie County Legislature, put there with the support of the

Legislature's conservative Republicans and County Executive Chris Collins, who has long

maintained that overtime should not count when calculating pension benefits.

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Miller-Williams is anything but sheepish about working overtime to boost her pension.

"The norm is to work very, very hard to increase your average. I've done nothing different

than what anyone else has done," she said. "I worked as hard as I could, but I had other

responsibilities, so I couldn't work as hard as some of my colleagues. But I did the best I

could."

Which wasn't bad.

After earning just $384 in overtime in 2006, the last year in which her earnings did not

factor into her pension payment, she picked up extra shifts with growing regularity —

worth almost $7,600 in 2007, then more than $25,000 in 2008, before hitting the jackpot last

year.

"I wish I could have done three very high years," she said.

As it is, the $84,158 in overtime pay for the last three years will boost her pension by an

estimated $14,000 a year, to about $44,000, when she retires at the end of the month.

"She's gaming the system, which is done by police officers all over the state, and it's

costing the taxpayers a lot of money," said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst with the

Empire Center for New York State Policy, a research and advocacy organization based in Albany.

"This is why the public is upset by the high cost of government," she said.

Miller-Williams will collect the pension in addition to her $52,500 annual salary as

legislator and chairwoman, and her earnings from her one-weekend-a-month stint in the Army

Reserve.

At age 60, she'll be eligible for a federal pension based on her service in the Reserve,

and she's about to become vested in a third public pension based on her tenure as an elected

official.

Last year, she worked 975.5 hours of overtime on the police force, or an average of nearly

19 OT hours a week. After becoming Legislature chairwoman, she has worked 182.5 hours of

overtime through last Friday, an average of 20 OT hours a week, which has netted her $9,768 in

additional pay.

That means she has been working, on average, about 60 hours a week as a police officer.

The Police Department has a policy that prohibits officers from working more than 20 hours

a week at outside jobs, and Miller-Williams said she has not run afoul of that edict. Even

with her additional duties as chairwoman, Miller-Williams said, she typically works between 15

and 20 hours a week as a legislator.

"I make sure I don't do more than the 20 hours," she said.

Miller-Williams, who will turn 54 next month, said that her workload has not increased

appreciably since becoming chairwoman and that she manages her time in part by using her five

weeks of vacation as a police officer when necessary to attend to her county work.

"I'm just on the phone more, in dialogue with people more," she said, "but I'm pretty much

doing the same things as I did as a district legislator."

County Legislator Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, served as chairwoman for four

years before Miller-Williams was elected in January by a coalition of Republicans aligned with

Collins and Democrats with ties to Mayor Byron W. Brown. Marinelli said she worked "easily 40

to 60 hours a week" when she held the title.

"It's a job that requires a lot of time and attention," she said.

What does Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, D-Buffalo, think about Miller-Williams saying

she works 15 to 20 hours a week? "My comment would be: "It shows,' " she said.

Whyte, a Marinelli ally who supported her unsuccessful effort to remain chairwoman, said

Miller-Williams is much less accessible and attends fewer committee and other functions than

Marinelli did.

"Barbara is difficult to find," Whyte said. "Her voice mail is frequently full."

Miller-Williams said the criticism could be construed as "sour grapes."

"I'm doing all that is humanly possible in 15 to 20 hours a week, and I'm doing it well,"

she said.

"It was my understanding it was a part-time position," she said. "If this is going to be an

issue, I don't have to serve as chair[woman]."

Legislature Minority Leader John J. Mills, who supported Miller-Williams' election as

chairwoman, disagrees with the criticism. "I attend more committee meetings than most people,

and she's there," said the Orchard Park Republican. "I thought she'd have a longer learning

curve, but she's a much brighter person than I think a lot of people give her credit for."

Miller-Williams, who represents the 3rd District, whose core includes Martin Luther King

Park and the Buffalo Museum of Science, started with the Police Department in August 1981. She

took a leave of absence for the seven years that she served on the Common Council, succeeding

James W. Pitts as representative of the Ellicott District in January 1995.

In 2002, Miller-Williams returned to the police force and stayed on when she was appointed

to the County Legislature in March 2007 to succeed George A. Holt Jr., who was removed after

pleading guilty to charges of filing fraudulent tax statements. She won election to a full

two-year term last year without opposition.

Miller-Williams said she did not take a leave of absence from the Police Department when

she joined the Legislature because the job isn't considered full time, as Council seats are.

In fact, the County Charter does not specify whether the job is part or full time. The number

of hours worked by legislators vary, and many treat the position as part time.

At the time she joined the Legislature, Miller-Williams was working a day job out of the

Police Department's training academy and assigned to school and anti-gang programs. The job

involved little overtime or opportunity to earn court time because it did not involve making

arrests.

Miller-Williams said she requested a transfer to patrol duty about a year and a half ago to

accommodate her work schedule as a legislator and has worked the midnight shift since. Only

then, Miller-Williams said, did she realize she could work a lot of overtime because of her

seniority.

Largely due to overtime, her earnings for 2007-09 averaged $99,522, off an average base

salary of $60,786.

She does not see any conflict between her working a lot of overtime to boost her pension

and her role as legislator, which involves review and approval of public funds, including the

county's $1 billion operating budget.

"I don't think that's unethical, and I don't think that's wrong," she said. "I didn't

create these rules. I didn't create the system."

Mills said that while Miller-Williams' racking up overtime to boost her pension "pains me a

little bit ... this is the way the system is set up."

A spokesman for Collins, who has criticized the practice of including overtime pay in the

calculation of pension benefits, said Collins and Miller-Williams have a "sizable difference"

on the subject.

"He thinks this particular provision of the pension system is wrong," said spokesman Grant

Loomis. "Short of a fix in Albany, if someone is working within the parameter of the system,

it doesn't mean the county executive can't work cooperatively with them."

The city's pension cost for the state's fiscal year that ends March 31 is $19.2 million;

police account for $10.1 million of that. The city's pension cost for the next budget year is

projected at $23 million.