Metro gave iPads to six of its executives as a bonus this year and $2,000 each to two other top workers, The Washington Examiner has learned. The awards were given to members of the agency’s finance team in a year that the financially challenged transit system had to raise fares on riders twice as it grappled with dropping ridership and rising costs.
| Apple iPads |
| The computerized tablets range in cost: |
| • $499 for 16GB, the most stripped-down model |
| • $629 for 16GB, 3G network |
| • $829 for 64GB of memory, 3G network |
Metro gave out the Apple tablets and bonuses to reward the eight workers because they had worked evenings and weekends to finish a project, said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. They were not eligible for overtime, she said.
“In lieu of payment and as a token of thanks for the tremendous amount of personal time they dedicated to this project, each received an iPad for their extraordinary work,” Farbstein said.
IPads cost up to $829 each, depending on the model, according to Apple’s website.
The Metro system does not use Apple products and the agency’s computer staff does not provide technical support for them. The tablets are intended as a personal gift for the employees, not as something to help with their jobs, Farbstein said.
The news of the gifts angered Jackie Jeter, president of Metro’s largest union, which has been battling the agency for a wage increase for more than two years.
“Whoa,” Jeter said when told of the bonuses. “It slaps in the face when they are still holding up our contract … especially when all you can do is tell the people the budget is tight, the money isn’t there, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.”
Metro has spent more than $1.3 million in legal fees fighting Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 over 3 percent wage increases for train and bus operators. The transit agency appealed an arbitrator’s decision to award the raises, and the case remains in court.
Farbstein could not explain what project the finance team worked on but said it “saved Metro tens of thousands of dollars immediately and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.” Farbstein could not provide any more precise estimate of how much the money was saved by the work.
Transit advocate Dennis Jaffe with the Sierra Club questions whether the agency should have a system for evaluating its employees and rewarding them fairly. “Who else at the agency goes above and beyond and what do they get for it?” he asked. “It’s willy nilly if it can’t be consistently applied.”
