BART Considers $1B Parcel Tax While Giving Away Millions in “Overtime/Other” Payments
BART officials are flirting with the idea of putting a parcel tax measure on the November 2012 ballot under the auspices of raising $900M to $1B for rail cars and Taser guns. This proposal would be a sequel to BART’s 2004 tax measure that raised $980M for seismic upgrades to the rail system. BART has admitted that many of its rail cars are 40 years old and that it has failed to set aside money over the years to replace the aging fleet.
Aside from questionable financial planning and vision, BART may be asking residents for money because of the excessively high “overtime/other” payments it gives to its employees. According to the Mercury News, BART’s top 50 employees were paid $10.6M in 2010, while costing ratepayers and taxpayers $13.2M after factoring in pension, health, and other employer expenses. The final tally works out to be roughly $210K in cash compensation per employee. BART’s list of top 50 paid employees includes BART senior managers, police staffers, and rank-and-file workers like station agent Deborah Fitzgerald, who was paid over $200K in 2010. Senior foreworker Carl Oliver earned over $200K in 2010 with nearly $120K from overtime and other compensation as well.
In another recent Mercury News article, Ken Hambrick, chairman of the Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers, said BART should trim its worker salaries, health and pension benefits before hitting taxpayers with more taxes. “When you’re paying someone $60,000 a year plus benefits to sit in a glass box in a station, you need to control your costs before asking taxpayers for more money,” said Hambrecht.
Twenty-one of the top 50 paid BART employees were in police services. BART police services earned an average of $225,559 in 2010. The top 20 police sergeants and lieutenants each earned just under $200K in 2010. As with most city and county police officers, the bulk of BART police services earnings came from overtime and other compensation payments. BART’s top 21 police staff members received an average salary payment of roughly $105K in 2010 while pulling in an average of over $120K in overtime and other payments in the same period. Given these numbers and the pending tax proposal, BART may be paying tens of millions of dollars it cannot afford in overtime to its employees.
If the overtime were truly necessary, BART should seriously consider hiring more staff to do the extra work. The tragic shooting of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant by former BART officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale station in Oakland in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009 is a painful reminder that exhaustion-induced poor judgment can be fatal and ultimately cost millions in legal fees and restitution.
BART’s financial woes cannot be tied to any one factor alone. Ethically-questionable overtime payments to its employees, excessive compensation packages for rank-and-file workers, construction cost overruns like the one at the West Dublin BART station, project false starts, and the impotent BART Trustees who are nothing more than figureheads have all contributed to BART’s budget mess. While no one group is entirely to blame, BART must get its house in order before asking voters for $1B in bailout.
2:07 PM on June 1st, 2011
John, I like coming onto your blog to get periodic updates on my community, but it bothers me when I see articles like this that is clearly trying to stir something up for no reason. If you want to talk about overpaid BART employee, talk about overpaid BART employees. But the $1B bond issue for seismic upgrades is not a “bailout” and really has nothing to do with overpaid employees. Are you suggesting that they should have enough cash reserves to pay for $1B worth of work? Because they shouldn’t. No agency should have that kind of cash for major infrastracture, no matter how much they cut in employee pay.
Furthermore, it’s easy to say they’ve spent too much money on overtime, and that may be true. But I will guarantee you most of the time, it is cheaper to pay employee overtime than to hire a new employee because of all the other costs like medical, dental, retirement, etc. It’s fair to ask them to evaluate overtime usage. It is unfair to conclude excessive compensation packages because of it.
Your blog would be so much better if you can just stick to the facts, rather than trying rally people up for no reason.
3:20 PM on June 1st, 2011
Those police are eating donuts while they collecting their overtime pay.
3:55 PM on June 1st, 2011
How long were you watching them eating donuts? I am pretty sure that they were not eating donuts all day (Maybe, they were on break!!) I am pretty sure that they would drop the donuts and response to a call if they are called!
7:34 PM on June 1st, 2011
Here is what you do…get badge numbers, time and location. Then share it with the public. Lets not make blind accusations. They could have been on lunch!
7:13 PM on June 1st, 2011
Hi Anonymous – you are absolutely correct that it sometimes makes more sense to pay overtime than hire additional workforce. However, that scenario only applies when the extra hours are needed. I think that it is reasonable to wonder if BART’s employees truly need to work the overtime or if the overtime is just being allocated out to pad compensation.
Thx, John Z.
7:37 PM on June 1st, 2011
Overtime is usually an indication of bad management or an unexpected event occurred that needs to be resolved immediately!
7:44 PM on June 1st, 2011
yeah…BART needs to work for us, the public. The Board of Directors are our representatives, they better not steer us wrong or its the end of their political career!
7:32 PM on June 1st, 2011
This is a start of a war of opinions…Let’s face the fact BART is very much mis-managed. Management of personel and public funds. Due to the fact,someone that works at BART usually has a direct or indirect family member working there also…A larger percent than at most places of public work! They have a classification called Foreworkers, where a large percentage of them are inept at their jobs and have no people skills, thus the dirty cars! Putting all these OPERATIONAL problems aside, there is a need for a CAPITAL expenditure for new cars. The transportation infrastructure is very expensive…and although money could have been set aside from the operational budget into a capital reserve during the flush years in anticipation of needing new cars. Raises and bonuses were given out and fares raised. Even with funds set aside, the amount needed would not be enough to cover the cost of new cars. This is the reason transportation agencies are heavily subsidized by federal and state funds. All in toll, its tax dollars, and we know the financial condtion of our governments. What the voters must determine, do they want new cars and is BART pulling a fast one, having later to raise fares and give additional raises only to give BART a even worst reputation or perception that it already has? The war starts now. We the public must demand expectations of our transit agencies performance!
4:28 PM on June 1st, 2011
Just lost all respect for this site see ya
7:41 PM on June 1st, 2011
Anonymous, keep in there we need your input and honesty!
11:45 AM on June 2nd, 2011
Privatize BART and watch the efficiencies get implemented. I run a transportation company. Given the skills involved, station agents should be making no kore than 35-50K, inclusive of benefits given the skills needed for the job. Train operators should be making no more than 65-75K, inclusive of benefits. Also, the job should have a maximum ceiling since the years of experience do not necessarily justify a increases in salary. The notion of getting paid more for the same job just because you do not have the skills to advance must be abandoned.
The police offers should be paid, on average, eighty percent of the average Bay Area beat cop salary since BART duty is arguably less dangerous than say being an officer in Oakland or East Palo Alto.
Publicly managed salaries are killing this country since polticians do not have shareholders to appease!!!!
1:18 PM on June 2nd, 2011
That is definitely a good idea. On top of that, Bart should partner with real estate developers to develop the land they own adjacent to each bart station. The profit will be split between BART and the Developers. These business model has been running very successfully in asia. At the same time, we are promoting a more sustainable linear city for the future.
11:05 PM on June 3rd, 2011
Totally agree with about publicly managed salaries killing this country. But, I’m not in favor of privatization because it will bring its own many and huge problems.
The solution to me is to have good measures on publicly managed salaries. For example, it should be comparable to that of private sectors, inclusive the benefits and other compensation. A lot of people argue that public sector jobs pay less so that if they go to private sector, they can earn much more. Yes, most likely, but also very likely for a shorter period. The compensation should be viewed as an overall picture.
I just don’t get it why it’s so hard to change anything at the public sector workplaces. Pass some good policies and laws so that ‘efficiencies’ can be measured very carefully for those jobs, and ‘consequences’ can be in place promptly. Effective management of the public workers should be valued as highly as that of privately held companies.