VALPARAISO | Last year, the Porter County auditor's office paid $12,920 in overtime wages. With six months still left this year, the office already has surpassed that amount -- dispersing more than $13,300 to date.

With more than 640 overtime hours this year, some employees are receiving sizable chunks. One employee has been paid nearly $3,400 this year for almost 200 hours of overtime work.

In comparison, neither the assessor's office nor the treasurer's office has clocked any overtime hours between last year and this year.

Porter County Auditor Jim Kopp said the overtime situation is a product of an understaffed office with too much work to do.

"We need more bodies," Kopp said. "We're constantly having more work being dumped in our office."

The overtime work has been for a variety of things, such as payroll, tax settlement and tax bills, Kopp said. The auditor also said the current tax situation has exacerbated the problem since the state is requiring additional reports and more work.

"It all takes time," Kopp said. "Other counties have four people doing what I have two doing."

The office has one vacant position but Kopp said the position is for someone at the front counter, which he doesn't need. Instead, Kopp said his office needs an additional worker to handle more in-depth work, such as settlement, tax increment financing problems and tax abstracts.

In addition to overtime being worked in Kopp's office, independent consultants have been assisting the auditor. Earlier this year, the County Council hired a tax consultant to help straighten out the tax bill delays from last year. The consultants have helped multiple offices, including the auditor's.

Kopp said the consultants worked with his employees for eight weeks and accumulated about 170 hours of billable work. The Council has not received a bill for the work yet, but the county previously earmarked about $150,000 for it.

The council, which controls the spending of all county funds, had mixed responses to the situation.

Council member Karen Conover echoed some of Kopp's concerns about the heavier workload.

"Those rebate checks have been a nightmare," Conover said. "And consultants have found some things dating back years that need to be corrected."

Council President Bob Poparad said several county offices are in need of more people, but sometimes overtime is cheaper than hiring new employees, especially when the problems are temporary.

"Sometimes you have to spend money to get the work done," Poparad said. "I'm relying on the officeholders to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money."

Other council members questioned how the office needs so much manpower.

"Certain responsibilities in the office have been handed off to other departments," Councilman Mike Bucko said. "If that's the way it's being done, then those individuals who previously did that work should have more time on their hands."

Bucko said part of the problem may be that certain employees are not experienced enough with the type of work they are doing. He also said he believes the situation should be closely evaluated to determine whether the office is truly understaffed.

Councilman Dan Whitten also expressed concern over the situation, but said the overtime may be in taxpayers' best interest.

"If you want to get the job done, you can definitely stretch your resources," Whitten said. "Yes, this is more (overtime) than I would like to see spent, but if this is what it really takes to get tax bills out on time, I'm willing to do that."