Madison’s highest paid city government employee last year wasn’t the mayor. It wasn’t the police chief. It wasn’t even the head of Metro Transit.
It was bus driver John E. Nelson.
Nelson earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay.
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They’re among the seven bus drivers who made more than $100,000 last year thanks to a union contract that lets the most senior drivers who have the highest base salaries get first crack at overtime.
And there was a lot of overtime - $1.94 million last year, $467,200 more than the bus system budgeted for and the most ever for the system - as employees exhausted sick leave and took advantage of unpaid leave through the federal Family Medical Leave Act, officials said.
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Concern about bus drivers being among the city’s highest earners isn’t new. The issue surfaced after Metro changed from a Downtown hub to a transfer station system in 1998.
In 1997, before the change, no driver made more than $70,000. But two years later, as Metro struggled to fill vacancies, two drivers topped $100,000 and seven more made more than $70,000.
A high base salary and other benefits for drivers were largely set in the 1970s and 1980s, when the city took over the bus company.
Also, the union contract limits part-timers to 15 percent of the number full-time drivers, and part-timers can only drive morning and afternoon school routes. Those rules create opportunities for overtime and other special pay for full-time workers.
Really makes you understand why FedEx fights unionization so hard.