Daley Employees Pocketed $9M in Vacation Pay: Report

City employees under former Mayor Richard Daley were paid $9.54 million in vacation pay, according to a list released Tuesday by City Hall.

Topping the list is Daley’s chief-of-staff Ray Orozco, who received $81,451 for accrued vacation, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

That's even more than former police superintendent Jody Weis, the Sun-Times points out, who was paid $76,308 for his 64 unused vacation days when his contract expired in March.

Weis received one of the highest payouts among 1,026 city employees during the transition from Mayor Richard Daley's administrations to Mayor Rahm Emanuel between September 2010 and June 15, 2011.

Overall, Orozco received a $76,339 check for 112 unused days during his 29 years in the Fire Department and a $5,112 check for the 7 1/2 days during his tenure in the mayor's office.

Vacation payouts also include former press secretary Jacquelyn Heard ($29,649), former mayoral aide Patrick McLain ($25,479) and former mayoral photographer Antonio Dickey ($17,678) among others.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has promised to eliminate that degree of compensation and limit the number of carried-over vacation days to five. 

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