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City's New Timecard System Catches Firefighter Captain Cashing Out $50K in Vacay Pay
Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Eric Vasquez has a $108,000 salary, but last year he took home a sweet extra $50,000 in vacation pay.
That number must have seemed awfully suspicious to the city, because they have put Vasquez on administrative leave while they investigate his case, according to the Daily News. (As a captain, Vasquez was actually the guy in charge of making sure that everyone submitted their time sheets for his section.)
Under the city contract, Vasquez is supposed to earn about 24 days of vacation a year and shouldn't be able to accrue any more than 48 days at a time. His $50K in vacation pay last year was the equivalent of 23 weeks. This year he cashed out more than $25K.
The city didn't notice anything unusual until this month when the firefighters started submitting their timecards electronically for the first time. Vasquez's timesheet wasn't the only suspicious one, but the discrepancies were the most glaring, according to Controller Wendy Greuel's report.
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