On July 15, Kevin Stark of The Public Press, as part of the community-funded City Budget Watchdog series, reported exclusively that the San Francisco Fire Department was the only major city division whose overtime pay grew in the past year — to the tune of $26.4 million in fiscal year 2008-09, an increase of 14 percent. This startling finding was reported in light of the city dealing with a $438 million deficit. Nearly a month later — on Aug. 12 — the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner both had prominent front-page stories, following Stark’s findings of excessive overtime pay to city firefighters. The Chronicle article reported that 89 city workers made more than $30,000 each in overtime pay during the first six months of 2009 — and that firefighters collected the most.