By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – A report in Sunday's Birmingham News says Linda Johnson, the wife of former state two-year college Chancellor Roy Johnson, collected her salary for 14 months after leaving her job and retiring October 1st as an executive assistant at Southern Union State Community College in Opelika.
The report says Johnson, who earned $125,314 a year, also received more than $48,000 in deferred retirement payments for the period she was on paid leave. That money was paid to her as part of a one-time retirement check of nearly $260,000 when she ended her paid leave October 1st.
Johnson left her office at Southern Union the week after her husband was fired in July of last year. Records show she continued receiving more than $2,300 a week while on paid leave, claiming 232 days of sick pay, 69 days of vacation and four days of personal leave until she retired.
The retirement payments made for the period when she also was receiving paid leave came as part of the state's deferred retirement program known as DROP.
Chancellor Bradley Byrne said Linda Johnson continued being paid since 2006 without reporting to work at Southern Union because system policies allow employees to accumulate large amounts of paid leave.
Byrne says Johnson was required only to submit a letter from her doctor authorizing the sick leave, which continued for more than a full, 180-day academic year.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)