Dick Blume / The Post-Standard, 2008An Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputy stops a motorist on Route 57 in Clay in 2008. A couple sheriff’s deputies have racked up enough overtime to make more money than their bosses.

By Michelle Breidenbach

and John O’Brien

Onondaga County sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Asmolik started his day as coordinator of the Central New York police academy at 6 a.m. Jan. 2, 2008, and clocked out 11 hours later. The next day, he worked 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The next day, his shift stretched from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Asmolik worked like this without a day off for 32 days — racking up 180 hours of straight time and 291.5 hours of overtime, an average of 15 hours per day, according to his time sheets.

By the end of the year, Asmolik had worked 1,328 hours of sheriff’s overtime and another 554 hours of part-time pay at the academy. That’s equal to an extra 47 weeks of full-time work.

Asmolik, 53, more than doubled his base pay — from about $60,000 to $134,852 in the fiscal year that ended March 31, according to records from the state pension system. That made him the fourth-highest-paid worker in Onondaga County government. He made more money than his boss, Sheriff Kevin Walsh, and County Executive Joanie Mahoney.

Sgt. Richard Flanagan Jr. joined Asmolik in the overtime shifts at the police academy at Onondaga Community College. Flanagan, whose father is director of the training center, worked a regular shift as an inspections sergeant and reported to the academy to teach driving courses.

Some days, Asmolik and Flanagan took just eight hours off overnight, then returned to work at 4 a.m. to teach inexperienced cops the high-speed driving techniques they need to chase bad guys. On those days, they worked every available minute allowed by sheriff’s policy, which limits hours to 16 per day…

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