Call the Buffalo Psychiatric Center switchboard and you may end up talking to a

$28,000-a-year employee &#8212 or perhaps a $60,000-a-year one.

That&#8217s because the psychiatric center is having safety officers double as telephone

operators to avoid putting operators on overtime.

&#8220The state has got to save money,&#8221 said Erik Kriss, a state budget division

spokesman. &#8220We are asking everybody to pitch in. This is an example of that.&#8221

Safety remains paramount, Kriss added.

&#8220If you have a safety worker dealing with a safety situation, and the phone rings at

the switchboard, and that safety officer would have to abandon the safety issue to answer the

phone, they are not supposed to answer the phone,&#8221 he said.

New York already had a hiring freeze in effect when the state budget office instituted an

overtime moratorium on May 13 covering most state workers. Among those excluded are those

providing direct care, or health and public safety workers.

In the past, the psychiatric center had three or four switchboard operators, but more

recently there have been only two, leaving the switchboard short-handed, and creating overtime

for the operators, union officials said.

Faced with the overtime ban, the psychiatric center initially paid a safety officer &#8212

exempt from the ban &#8212 overtime to work the switchboard for &#8220a portion of one shift

on one day while we made plans to eliminate any overtime associated with our switchboard

operations,&#8221 said center spokeswoman Susan M. Joffe.

The center now has officers answering phones as part of their regular duties, without

overtime, whenever the center&#8217s switchboard operators aren&#8217t working, Joffe said.

This is similar to what is being done at other psychiatric centers in the state, she said,

adding that the telephone system is largely automated so the majority of calls don&#8217t

require operators.

A CSEA representative said the union believes safety officers received overtime to man the

switchboard for a longer time than the center acknowledges. But whether paid overtime or

straight time, having officers answer phones doesn&#8217t make financial sense, said Robert

Mootry, a CSEA labor relations specialist.

&#8220Someone could be making $60,000 answering the phone, which makes for not good fiscal

management,&#8221 he said.

Safety officers earn $35,000 to $60,000 a year, depending on their rank and years of

experience; a switchboard operator typically earns $28,000 to $33,000 annually, according to

union salary scales.

Buffalo Psychiatric Center safety officers have helped answer phones on the night shift as

part of their regular duties in the past, but not during the day, when the switchboard is

busier, said CSEA spokesman Lynn Miller.

&#8220They are taking CSEA members&#8217 work,&#8221 Miller said. &#8220We have a bit of a

problem with the current situation.&#8221

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, representing

the center&#8217s safety officers, has concerns about safety officers performing tasks that

take officers away from their normal work. However, the association has lost challenges it

filed when safety workers got telephone duties at other state psychiatric centers, said Chris

Hickey, the association&#8217s executive vice president.

&#8220The CSEA are the ones that will have to try to get it resolved if they want to pursue

it,&#8221 Hickey said.