CA parks officials apparently used 'Katrina' code in vacation cashout

◼ California parks officials apparently used obscure payroll codes intended for emergencies such as wildfires and disasters like Hurricane Katrina to turn vacation time into overtime pay, the State Controller's Office testified Wednesday. - Sacramento Bee

State managers are generally not allowed to earn overtime, and California's payroll system is designed to block them from receiving it, said John Hiber, chief operating officer with the Controller's Office, at a Senate oversight hearing. But the system has codes that managers can enter for overtime in rare cases such as Cal Fire employees fighting wildfires or emergency workers providing relief in natural disasters as they did in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

"It appears that because those codes exist that this wasn't picked up (and) that those codes were manipulated to allow this to occur," Hiber testified.