Official paid $333,000 in 2012 for doing no work

We’ve all heard stories from across the nation in which a bungling city government or local agency allows an official to pocket ridiculous sums of cash and perks in a shady way. But the story coming out of California this week may top them all.

An official is targeted for dismissal because she routinely violated the Open Meetings Act. But the local board botches the process of giving her the boot – ironically by failing to provide proper public notice of their meeting – and is forced to pay her nearly $1 million in a court settlement.

The ex-official is quietly allowed to stay on the payroll to burn off her unused vacation time and essentially got paid a six-figure salary for doing no work throughout 2012.

In the process, she collected bonuses and boosted her pension – all the while never stepping foot inside her former office.

Here are the details, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News:

A former official for the San Francisco area’s public transit system raked in more than $333,000 last year without working a single day.

Under a lucrative retirement scheme, Dorothy Dugger, 57, former general manager of the Bay Area Rapid Transit quietly stayed on the books, even though she had resigned under pressure in May 2011.

(Dorothy Dugger)

According to the Mercury News, Dugger was allowed to burn off nearly 80 weeks of unused vacation time, drawing paychecks and full benefits for more than 19 months.

The months of extra pay were in addition to the $920,000 Dugger was paid to leave after the BART’s board botched an effort to fire her by violating public meetings laws, the Mercury News reported.

“Wow,” said James Fang, who tried to oust Dugger. “She's still on the payroll? I did not know this. It’s startling.”

The former manager cashed in more than 3,100 vacation hours saved during her 20 years with BART.

Many cash-strapped public agencies are now under scrutiny for allowing departing employees to convert huge banks of unused vacation and sick time into big cash payouts, but a little-known policy in BART's rules for senior managers like Dugger made her perk even sweeter.

Because she was allowed to drag out her vacation-bank payments for months, Dugger received $138,000 worth of benefits, including pension contributions and medical insurance -- perks she would not have received if she had taken her vacation payments in a lump-sum check. Since she remained on BART's payroll, Dugger also received an additional $98,000 in cash, because she was still racking up vacation time and management bonuses -- even though she had no one to manage.

That alone exceeded the 2012 gross pay of almost three-quarters of BART's 3,340 workers, the agency's compensation data shows.

Remaining on BART's payroll also added both time and money to the calculations on which Dugger's retirement is based -- increasing her pension payments by more than $1,000 a month for life. When her time on BART's books finally ran out in December, she began to draw a pension of $181,000 a year.