How can I get a job like the one Dorothy Dugger has? She’s a BART public transit worker, and reportedly hauled home $330,000 last year without working a single day .
The San Francisco BART manager resigned in 2011 under pressure , but somehow stayed on the payroll for another 19 months. Despite not technically working for the public transit agency, she was their highest paid employee in 2012 , according to the Bay Are News Group .
Before we all cry foul on public unions , the 57-year-old was technically entitled to the cash. She had turned in 80 weeks of unused vacation time, pulling her pull paycheck and benefits during that period. She earned nearly two extra months of vacation with BART, received management bonuses and medical insurance, and pushed up her pension benefits by more than $1,000 each month for life.
After leaving BART’s payroll in December, Dugger started collecting an annual pension of $181,000.
“It was time I earned my whole career at BART,” Dugger said. “It’s a cost of having the option” to keep vacation until the end of your career, she said.
Even though it’s on the books and Dugger didn’t do anything wrong, plenty of folks are upset that she managed to collect $330,000 last year without working a single day. Among them, James Fang, a BART board member who tried to have Dugger ousted in 2011.
“She was still on the payroll? I did not know this. It’s startling,” he said. “We have to look at this.”
“I hope it becomes a big stink,” said BART rider Mitch Roland. “This is an agency funded by taxpayers. … They should have stricter controls.”
What do you think of Dorothy Dugger, the BART manager who still managed to take home $330,000 without working a single day? Is she rightly entitled to the cash, or do some BART rules need to change? Sound off!
[Image via: rvlsoft / Shutterstock ]
