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Fenerty PPA payout included 6 months of vacation

Former Philadelphia Parking Authority executive director Vincent J. Fenerty Jr.'s farewell included a $120,000 payment for enough vacation days to last from now until July.

Vincent J. Fenerty Jr. was ousted from his job as executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority following sexual harassment complaints.
Vincent J. Fenerty Jr. was ousted from his job as executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority following sexual harassment complaints.Read moreClem Murray / File Photograph

Former Philadelphia Parking Authority executive director Vincent J. Fenerty Jr.'s farewell included a $120,000 payment for enough vacation days to last from now until July.

That's according to an itemized breakdown of last week's $227,000 payment that the PPA produced Tuesday.

Fenerty, 60, left the PPA in September - a day before the authority's board had planned to terminate him - amid Inquirer reports of sexual harassment allegations from two PPA employees.

He had earned $223,000 a year as executive director and is now collecting a $158,628 pension, the highest in the city's retirement system.

Last week, the PPA paid Fenerty $227,228.29 in unused administrative leave, comp time, sick days, and more than 1,000 hours of vacation time - or approximately a half- year of work.

PPA spokesman Martin O'Rourke said Friday that figure was "consistent with payout procedures for any employee" and did not require approval by the board. He said the board was informed of the amount.

None of the PPA's six board members responded Tuesday to requests for comment on Fenerty's payment.

According to figures provided by O'Rourke, Fenerty received:

$4,301.48 for 37.5 hours of administrative leave.

$33,178.75 for 289.25 hours of comp time.

$7,742.67 for 67.5 hours of holiday comp time.

$120,752.31 for 1,052.71 hours of vacation time.

$61,253.08 for 534 hours of sick time.

"One thousand hours is an awful lot of days," David Thornburgh, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy government-watchdog group, said of Fenerty's stockpile of vacation time.

Thornburgh also said it seemed unusual for the top executive of an organization to bank comp time for working extra hours like rank-and-file employees do.

"If you're the CEO of an organization, you're expected to work until the job is done," Thornburgh said. "You're not punching a clock."

The payment came out of the PPA's general fund, O'Rourke said.

Fenerty, a Republican ward leader who started working for the Parking Authority in 1983, paid $30,000 last year for an outside investigation that found he had sexually harassed a senior director at the PPA, the Inquirer reported in September.

The PPA's board allowed Fenerty to keep his job after that incident, with some board members saying he had no prior accusations.

But Inquirer columnist Mike Newall subsequently reported that the PPA in 2007 had offered a $150,000 settlement to another woman who had accused Fenerty of years of sexual harassment, including licking her ear, pulling down her blouse to reveal her cleavage, and other inappropriate contact.

"It just seems crazy, particularly given the circumstances of his departure," Thornburgh said of the recent payment.

Fenerty did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

benderw@phillynews.com

215-854-5255 @wbender99