Rep. Tom Davis said an Examiner report revealing how Metro spent $70 million in overtime was evidence that the agency needed more oversight and an independent inspector general.
The report found hundreds of hourly employees at the publicly subsidized agency earning more than $100,000, and that the overtimewas included when figuring an employee’s pension — meaning Metro could pay some employees more in retirement than they earned from their regular salary.
“Clearly, we need some more accountability and transparency,” Davis said. “This is no way to run a railroad.”
D.C.-area taxpayers subsidize about half of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s $1.1 billion operating budget.
District of Columbia taxpayers chipped in the most last year, $198 million. Prince George’s contributed $98 million and Montgomery County added $87 million during the same period.
Northern Virginia contributed a total of $119 million for operating costs, with Fairfax County paying the most — $63 million.
Davis, R-Va., is close to pushing through a bill that would provide the Metro system $1.5 billion in federal money over 10 years for capital projects and more buses and trains. The bill also requires matching funds from D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
His legislation also requires an independent inspector general and puts more federal representation on the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The bill would also add a passenger representative to the board.
The Examiner reported that hundreds of hourly employees, train and bus drivers of the agency earned more than $100,000, last year some by working an average of five hours of overtime every day. Some of the Metro’s hourly employees used the overtime to nearly double their earnings to over $150,000.
The system’s retirement policy includes overtime payments when calculating pension payments. Metro pays vastly higher pensions to employees than they would have received if their retirement payments were based on regular hourly earnings.
