State Employee Skips Work On Friday For 17 Years

Officials say retired New York prison food services director Howard Dean had a really hard time waiting for the weekend, so he skipped work on Fridays for 17 years. Dean made sure, however, to include those Friday hours on his time cards. The extra hours and bogus travel expenses netted Dean nearly $500,000, according to officials. From the article: "State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Inspector General Joseph Fisch said their investigation found Howard Dean, 64, of Locke, bilked the state Treasury of about $230,000 by skipping work at the state's Food Production Center in Rome every Friday for 17 years but claiming the hours on his time cards, the New York Post reported Wednesday."

Uhh...

[kainewynd2]

found Howard Dean, 64, of Locke, bilked the state Treasury of about $230,000 by skipping work at the state's Food Production Center in Rome every Friday for 17 years but claiming the hours on his time cards

Maybe they should look at the management during his time there as well? Just a friendly suggestion...

There was an even worse case

[George_Ou]

There was a woman who worked (for San Francisco I think) on night shifts. She would come in and punch in, go home and sleep, come back in pajamas to punch in during break, then come back to clock out. She did this for several years. Of course the real question is that if no one missed her all those years, does the city really need this position in the first place.

Re:There was an even worse case

[Daniel Dvorkin]

The continued existence of these positions contribute to maintaining the membership and revenue of the union to which all of these crucial civil servants belong. It is imperative that these unions continue to enjoy increasing and unassailable power forever, and you are well advised to cease your questioning of this policy.

In private industry, there are organizations that allow people to draw enormous salaries -- much larger than any state employee will ever make -- without doing any actual work at all, for years at a time. These organizations generally go by names like "board of directors" and "executive suite," and interestingly, they spend much of their time trying (successfully, as comments like yours show) to convince people that unions are the root of all evil. Why do you suppose that could be?