BART Manager Quits, Gets $1 Million

It sounds like the catch for a new game show: quit your job and get $1 million dollars. Unfortunately, this is no game, this the reality of a screwed up transportation authority. BART general manager Dorothy Dugger will resign April 22, and in return she’s going to get a million dollar payout.

Resign…that’s a nice way of saying it. A less tactful way of putting it = she got fired.

According to the SF Appeal, “Under an agreement reached by Dugger and BART’s board of directors, the transit agency will pay her $958,000. That amount includes the $600,000 cost of Dugger’s severance package if she had been terminated, plus $350,000 to “ensure a smooth transition and avoid any litigation between the parties,” BART officials said.”

What? Who gets money for get fired. What kind of topsy-turvy world do we live in where you can fail do to your job correctly, be forced to resign and then get a million dollars (of taxpayers and commuters’ money) for screwing up? I understand that Dugger has been with BART for 19 years, but it still doesn’t make sense.

BART will start looking for a replacement this Thursday and, hopefully, this time when they are negotiating contracts they’ll be smarter. But, don’t bet on it. Bet on BART fees getting raised with poorer service.

For more, go here.

Besides being an editor at SF Station, Anhoni Patel writes fiction. She is the author of "All Good Things Die in L.A." and is currently at work on her second novel. Her many passions include movies, cupcakes and books. You can find her work and novel info here: http://www.anhonipatel.com.