MacArthur Airport overtime soars past $1.2M as Islip struggles with security guard staffing

Employees at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma racked up more than $1 million in overtime in each of the past two years, a Newsday analysis found, costs that climbed amid a struggle to hire and retain security guards. 

The Town of Islip, which runs the airport, paid more than $1.2 million in overtime for 75 airport employees last year, up from $1.09 million a year earlier. In 2023, the town paid $944,017 in overtime. 

Airport security guard staffing has fallen over the past several years. The town employed 18 security guards at the end of 2019, and by the start of 2025, nine were employed, according to data provided by the town. Islip ended last year with 17 guards, following a mid-year push to boost staffing levels. The average base salary for a security guard last year was $67,469, town payroll records show.

Overtime pay in 2025 for a single guard reached a high of $110,154, records show. The airport's top five overtime earners were all within the airport's security division, and two guards more than doubled their salaries through overtime. Newsday obtained Islip's payroll records under the state's Freedom of Information Law. 

“You shouldn’t be paying someone more in overtime than in base pay. … It's one of the fundamentals,” said Ken Girardin, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “It implies some other problem. That could be in terms of hiring; that could be in terms of oversight.”

The data, public finance experts said, raises questions about how efficiently the town has managed MacArthur, which has expanded by adding multiple new airline carriers over the past decade.

The overtime disclosures follow leadership turnover and security challenges at the airport.

MacArthur experienced at least three security breaches in 2024, Newsday has reported. Also, airport security director Brian Murphy resigned at the start of last year following nine months on the job, becoming the third person to depart the role in three years. The town has not replaced him.

Girardin said employees making more in overtime than their base salaries is “one of the easiest-to-spot indicators of a mismanaged operation.”

Caroline Smith, a town spokeswoman, defended the airport's operations in an email and said the criticism reflected "generalized observations." The guard positions, she said, are "unique in that they have very specific minimum qualifications that must be met." 

Islip paid more overtime to cover staffing shortages and that those payments are “always monitored, scrutinized, and carefully tracked,” she said.

Smith attributed the staffing decline to several factors. One roadblock is a set of minimum staffing requirements set by the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration. She also cited turnover among security guards, many of whom leave to pursue jobs with other law enforcement agencies where compensation is greater.

“This results in chronic understaffing, which is problematic for the town, because the FAA and TSA mandate that we have 24/7 coverage for these positions,” she wrote.

The town board appointed a new airport commissioner last May, when Rob Schneider succeeded Shelley LaRose. The airport hired eight new security guards within several months of Schneider taking the role.

Smith said the hiring push “will bring down overtime in that specific division which has had staffing shortages for several years due to the employment process.” 

Retention is a long-running issue at the airport, said Kevin Boyle, president of the United Public Service Employees Union, which represents the town's airport security guards.

“We’ve had other folks who have left to take other positions. ... They want to become city police officers,” Boyle said in an interview. “It’s just an ongoing recruitment-retention situation." 

OT soars

The airport’s $1,208,716 overtime tab in 2025 represented a 29% increase from the 2019 pre-pandemic expense of $940,039, a Newsday analysis shows.

During the period in between, total overtime at Islip’s airport dipped to a seven-year low of $463,244 in 2020, the start of the pandemic. Overtime slowly climbed back up over the next three years — reaching $620,095 in 2021, $903,503 in 2022, $944,017 in 2023 — before breaking seven figures in 2024, when the total was $1,091,071. 

Security guard staffing remained steady at 18 in 2019 and 2020, then dropped to 13 in 2021 and 2022. The airport employed 12 security guards in 2023, before that figure dropped to nine by the end of 2024 and remained at that level until August 2025, when Islip hired eight more guards, Smith said. 

“That’s pretty low. ... That’s tough to work with," said Robert Schaefer, who served as Islip's commissioner of MacArthur Airport from 2012 until 2016. "And you can’t say, ‘well, I’m not going to cover that,’ because the FAA, TSA and Homeland [Security] are going to mandate that you cover these posts.”

Airport security guards must be 21 or older and be U.S. citizens, maintain a valid driver’s license and have graduated high school or hold a GED, according to a town job description.

Prospective guards also need to have a Suffolk County pistol permit, a peace officer training certificate and be certified in CPR and shock paddle use within their first year on the job.

It's proved difficult to recruit airport security guards, Boyle said.

“There’s not enough individuals in the pipeline for the airport law enforcement position,” Boyle said.

Islip sends canvas letters offering possible job opportunities to candidates who have passed civil service exams and are eligible for the role. Thos e  candidates then have to respond to the letter and complete the hiring process. Only a small share do, Smith said.

Smith told Newsday that, during the recent hiring push, just 30 of the 130 eligible candidates responded to Islip’s canvas letter. The town was able to appoint just eight. 

Retaining the employees is another challenge. Payroll data shows that after Islip’s 2019 hiring effort, when nine security guards joined, total guard staffing dropped by five within about two years. 

A decade of airport expansion

Islip has operated the 1,311-acre airport since 1944.

MacArthur Airport does not use property taxes to cover its operating budget, which was $19 million in 2025. Instead, the town relies on state and federal grants, and revenue from terminal rentals, parking charges and landing fees. The airport has recorded a string of budget surpluses since at least 2019, boosted in some years by federal pandemic aid. 

While the airport has remained in the black, the Town of Islip has struggled to keep pace with growing budgetary pressures. The town pierced the state's tax cap in each of the past two years as it contended with rising employee salaries, health care premiums and pension contribution costs.

The airport is in the midst of an expansion, more than doubling the number of nonstop destinations since 2015, Newsday has reported. MacArthur added at least five new flight providers during that period: Frontier Airlines in 2017, Breeze Airways in 2022, JetBlue in 2024, and both Cape Air and Avelo Airlines last year. 

The total number of passengers at MacArthur rose by about 35,000 between 2019 and 2025, from about 1.545 million to roughly 1.58 million, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The Suffolk County Police Department also maintains a sergeant and 10 officers at MacArthur as part of the Airport Operations Unit, Smith confirmed.

Newsday has reported on several security breaches in recent years.

On Feb. 4, 2024, a Bobcat loader was stolen and driven through an airport fence, police have said. In December of that year, a passenger entered a secure TSA area despite repeated warnings not to, Newsday reported. Police later arrested the man.

MacArthur's past three security directors resigned within a three-year period, with Murphy's resignation effective on Jan. 3, 2025, Newsday has reported. The role has been vacant since Murphy left, and Islip is not currently "pursuing" a new director, Smith said in an email. 

The director's "responsibilities were assigned to other airport security staff including the airport security supervisor," Smith said.

Hiring v. OT debate

The airport’s five highest overtime earners earned a combined $388,305 in overtime last year, payroll data shows.

Senior security guard Craig Hatcher made the most overtime of any airport employee, earning $110,154 in OT. His base salary was $85,561. Security guard Nicholas Monaco made $80,749 in overtime. It was more than his base salary of $70,164. None of the airport's top five overtime earners could be reached for comment.

Thad Calabrese, a professor of public and nonprofit financial management at New York University, also said high overtime is “a flag to investigate.”

“Clearly, if someone needs to work that much, you would need to take a look at operations and determine whether you should have another [position] there,” he said.

But Smith said overtime can be an easier and cheaper alternative to hiring new employees.

New hires bring the added expenses of salary, training and healthcare premiums and pension contributions, she said.

“Each new employee needs to go through rigorous training while current staff already understand airport operations,” she said. “A new hire requires months of training and often needs longer to reach the same level of knowledge and productivity.”

Calabrese said overtime can also drive up pension costs, which are based on employees’ highest-earning years. The growing overtime expense should prompt airport leaders to review operations, he said.

Newsday's Arielle Martinez contributed to this story.