The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "vacation days" ...
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America's Great State Payroll Giveaway
A state-employed psychiatrist in California made $822,000 by clocking in 17 hours every day last year, including Sundays and holidays. An employee cashed out with $609,000 for unused vacation when she retired, claiming she never took vacations in a 30-year career. A highway patrol officer collected $484,000 in salary, pension and leave payments. The chief money manager at a Texas pension fund got $1 million in salary and bonuses while posting investment returns that trailed those of peers who earned a quarter as much. Bloomberg News used freedom-of-information laws to obtain 1.4 million payroll records from the 12 largest states and show how taxpayers funded these out-of-control expenses and more, while at the same time states cut funding for universities, public safety, health care, schools and services aimed at the neediest residents.
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Connecticut Superintendents
Viktoria Sundqvist, investigations editor at The Middletown Press, submitted FOI requests for all school superintendent contracts in Connecticut and gathered these contracts into a searchable database. The contracts were analyzed and salaries, mileage, vacation days and other perks were analyzed and made available to the public, in addition to links to the contracts.
Tags: Schools; school superintendents; salaries; public records
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"Big payout, little oversight at NEIU"
After receiving a tip from a member of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit (NEIU) board, reporter Sarah Hofius Hall began investigating the retirement of Fred Rosetti, former executive director of the NEIU. She revealed that the board "blindly and quietly" removed caps on accrued vacation and sick days, which meant Rosetti would have received slightly more than half a million dollars in payouts upon retirement.
Tags: NEIU; payouts; right-to-know request; Abington Heights; Alvin Hollister; vacation days; sick leave; Italy
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Marked Absent
The Eagle- Tribune, analyzed the attendance of teachers from seventeen districts north of Boston. The investigation revealed that teacher absenteeism increases the costs for the schools and on an average each child pays $104 for substitute teachers. They also found that 43% teachers used sick leave next to long weekends and holidays and teachers in fact accepted that they use sick leaves to pad their vacations.
Tags: teacher attendance; teacher absenteeism; Boston schools
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Retiring workers and their golden send-offs
The Star-Ledger examines the huge sums necessary to cover the pay for local government employees who bank sick and vacation time. When those employees retire, they get paid for the extra time they worked on the job over the years. What this means, however, is that "taxpayers will pay nearly $1.5 billion to reimburse local government employees for unused sick and vacation time." The Star-Ledger breaks what is owed down on a per-capita basis and by county, and also includes what each town would owe if all their employees of this kind retired at once.
Tags: retirement; pension; taxes; overtime; sick pay; sick days; vacation; vacation time
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Blue Line, Red Ink
Although Nassau County is the fourth richest in the U.S., it has a $200 million deficit and long-term debt close to $3 billion. Newsday reporters set out to determine the role of the police department in the spending frenzy. "Police spending increased 64 percent in the last 10 years, twice as fast as county spending overall, largely because of generous salaries and benefits. Police make up 29 percent of the county workforce, but account for 50 percent of its total payroll. Nassau police are among the highest-paid in the nation, ranging from $90,000 to $132,000 annually, and they enjoy an extraordinary number of perks.
Tags: police department; deficit; government spending; perks; overtime; interfund charges; police pensions; sick days; vacations
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No title (id: 13738)
Deputy Tampa Police Chief John Cuesta was a 17 year veteran of the department. His police record was excellent. While working on the force, Cuesta also became an attorney. WFTS repeatedly found Cuesta spending hours and hours at a private law office in the middle of his tax funded work day. On his police vacation time Cuesta was handling a case in court which could conflict with his police position. Fellow police officers came to WFTS to publicly claim for the first time ever that they had often seen Cuesta shortchange his police duties while attending law school. (August 7, 8, 13; Sept. 6, 1996)
Tags: Cochran Kalthoff Mahan Jones et al Contest entry TAPE No script