BART GM Dorothy Dugger Resigns with $1M Severance Package

Dorothy Dugger

​BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger announced her resignation from the transit agency today, and will leave with close to $1 million in pay as part of a severance agreement, BART officials said.

Dugger's resignation comes after BART's board of directors voted to fire her in February. They were forced to rescind the action, since the public had not been adequately notified of the meeting at which their decision was made.

If the board had voted to fire Dugger through proper procedures, it would have saved plenty of money, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The newspaper reported that the board would have owed her about $600,000 back then.

By contrast, BART officials issued a statement today that Dugger will received that $600,000 plus an additional $350,000 "to ensure a smooth transition and to avoid any litigation between the parties."

Dugger, the first woman to head BART, has charted a relatively secure financial course for the agency, which has run a budget surplus while other public-transportation agencies struggled with large deficits.

The reasons surrounding the February vote to fire her are still unclear, though some board members have expressed dissatisfaction with how she has communicated to them through through the agency's tumultuous last few years, which included the shooting death of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer in 2009.

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