POWAY, Calif. -- A $20,000 analysis of the Poway Fire Department's increasing use of overtime has concluded that the city is saving money, not wasting it, it was reported Thursday.

The Poway City Council hired Citygate Associates LLC, a private consulting firm, to study the issue after it was revealed that overtime pay among Poway firefighters increased from $397,010 in 2002-03 to $829,769 in 2006-07, and was expected to increase to $1.3 million this fiscal year.

The consultant told the council this week that the city's "usage of overtime is appropriate and within accepted best practices in the fire services, given how the city has chosen to staff its fire services," The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Poway planned to spend $40,000 on the consultant study but because the preliminary results showed few things could or should be done to reduce overtime costs, the second phase of the study was deemed unnecessary, city spokeswoman Jennifer Lewis told the newspaper.

Much of the overtime paid to Poway firefighters stemmed from when one was called in to work for another who was sick or injured, according to the study. An alternative would be to hire more firefighters but that would cost more than the overtime, the study found.

"By and large it says the overtime spending we're experiencing is to be expected in a department of our size given the level of staffing we have chosen," Poway City Manager Rod Gould told the Union-Tribune.