A paid holiday for YOU! And YOU! (And you, TOO!)

The board at Sanford’s Central Carolina Community College, according to state auditor Beth Wood, has been in as generous a mood as Oprah lately:

[…] Central Carolina Community College (College) paid employees for 11 more holidays than
commonly recognized by other state and county government entities during the 2017 fiscal
year. As a result, the College paid employees $862,424 for days they did not work. The
Board of Trustees (Board) approved the holiday calendar with an excess number of holidays
as an employee benefit and recruiting tool. The lack of a State Board of Community Colleges
(State Board) holiday policy allowed the Board to approve excess holidays. Employees of
state agencies, surrounding counties, universities, and public schools all receive 12 paid
holidays each year […] 

During fiscal year 2017, the Board approved a holiday calendar that recognized a total of 23
paid holidays, 11 more paid holidays than those received by state and county employees.
The College provided extra holidays as follows:
• July 5, 2016 (extra day after Independence Day)
• November 8, 2016 (Election Day)
• November 23, 2016 (extra day before Thanksgiving)
• December 19, 2016 through December 22, 2016 and December 28, 2016 throughDecember 30, 2016 (seven extra days during Winter Break)
• April 17, 2017 (Easter Monday) […] 

The Board’s approval of the College holiday calendar resulted in employees receiving
$862,424 in excess holiday payments for 11 extra days they did not work and did not take
paid leave.[…] 

The granting of extra paid holidays resulted from the lack of a State Board policy specifying
the number of paid holidays and the lack of recent guidance from the State Board on the
appropriate number of holidays. Therefore, the College’s Board believed it had proper
authority to set the number of paid holidays.[…] 

Ooof.  This CAN’T be the only place this has happened.

For what it’s worth, here are the folks on the state community college board.