Richard Sarles doesn’t only give out large sums to his employees. He also has received them. Metro’s general manager received a vacation payout of $29,775 and $15,000 more in unused sick time after leaving the top job of NJ Transit, according to the Asbury Park Press newspaper in New Jersey.
Sarles received the payout in the same year his salary jumped by joining Metro. When he started as Metro’s interim leader last spring, his salary was the equivalent of $300,000 per year, plus the use of a one-bedroom apartment. That’s well above his $261,324 annual salary in New Jersey, according to the Asbury Park Press. And now, under a three-year contract as general manager, his annual Metro salary has risen to $350,000.
Sarles’ vacation payout equaled about 30 days of vacation from time earned in 2010 and left over from 2009, the New Jersey newspaper reported. The payout came in the same year that NJ Transit raised fares on riders.
The amount paid to him and other employees has prompted New Jersey’s governor to condemn the practice, calling it an inappropriate abuse of public funds that must end.
Metro defended the payout on behalf of Sarles. The money that New Jersey paid out to him was specified in his contract and was “consistent with the policies for NJ Transit management at the time of his departure,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein wrote in a email.
Metro itself doesn’t pay out unused sick time, according to the agency, but it does pay for leftover vacation days.
Metro Chief Information Officer Suzanne Peck, for example, received $18,976.51 for unused vacation time when she left the agency abruptly in February, according to Metro records. That’s the equivalent of about 28 days following just over four years with the transit agency. – Kytja Weir
