D.C. officials are raising questions about Metro’s spending after The Washington Examiner reported some workers were taking home five-figure payments for just two months’ worth of overtime. D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, who serves on Metro’s board of directors, said Wednesday that he is “very unsatisfied” with how Metro officials have been spending money.
“I don’t want to micromanage them yet but I am very dissatisfied with some of the overtime costs and how they’ve managed it,” the Ward 6 Democrat said during a D.C. budget meeting. “And I expect that to be changed.”
The Examiner reported Monday that the 10 employees who logged the most extra hours in January and February all worked more than an extra full-time job’s worth of overtime on top of their regular schedules.
One construction inspector earned more than $32,000 in two months by working the equivalent of 16-hour days every single day in the period for which Metro provided data. That’s the equivalent of working from 8 a.m. until midnight every day.
Furthermore, the agency had blown through its entire $48 million overtime budget after the first seven months of its fiscal year, which started July 1.
Metro General Manager Richard Sarles defended the expenses this week, saying the long hours would continue as the agency undergoes a major rehabilitation effort.
But D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who served on Metro’s board for more than a decade, said The Examiner’s reports raised important questions about Metro’s spending as the transit agency asks local governments for bigger subsidies.
“I’m just concerned that we may have reached the point where all manner of spending is justified to fix the place,” he said in an interview after the budget meeting. “For those of us who are struggling with local budgets, we need to have assurances that it is as efficient and effective as possible.”
The District is under the gun to find more money for the transit agency. Metro is seeking $258 million from the District for its share of the transit agency’s upcoming operating budget, but city officials said Wednesday they are still $4.3 million short.
Wells said that the city has made a commitment to find the money. Maryland and Virginia also are being asked to pay more to close a $66 million shortfall in Metro’s upcoming $1.5 billion operating budget that begins in July.
