The practice appears to have continued for more than 30 years. In one case reviewed by investigators, an employee received back pay covering 1,071 days — nearly three years — before occupying the promoted position.

The department must fill vacant jobs, and vacancies were often covered by other employees earning overtime or temporary “acting out of title” pay. The city then sometimes paid the permanent employee retroactively for the same period, the report said, including for work they had not performed or were not eligible to perform.

Investigators reviewed 427 promotions between January 2020 and April 2025 and found that 206 employees received backdated pay for work they did not do. In a sample of 2024 promotions to Pump Operator and Emergency Vehicle Driver positions, the city paid more than $30,000 for unperformed work.

Cumming’s report said union agreements with the department do not clearly explain how promotional pay should be handled. That gap allowed an inconsistent system to develop, according to the report. The city’s Workday payroll system, introduced in 2020, did not resolve the problem: Fire Department officials continued to use separate dates for when promotions took effect and when pay changes were processed. Backlogs often led to manual calculations and adjustments.

In August 2025, Fire Chief James W. Wallace told the unions that the back-pay system could not continue and that, going forward, employees would receive raises beginning on their promotion dates. The unions challenged the change, and the dispute is in arbitration. A two-day hearing took place in July, Wallace said, but the arbitrator has not given a timeframe for a decision.

Cumming referred the findings to the Department of Audits in the Comptroller’s Office for further review. The findings raise questions about payroll controls and how the city manages staffing costs in a department where vacant positions still need to be covered.