Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet 
 
 Last November, a nonprofit called Transparent California reported that a BART janitor named Liang Zhao Zhang made $271,000 in a single year — over $162,000 of that in the form of overtime. 
 
 Now, a KTVU investigation into Zhang's hours and pay revealed that he disappears into a storage closet at the Powell St. station, sometimes for hours a day. 
 
 In order to observe how Zhang spent his sometimes 17-hour work day, KTVU requested surveillance video from BART. On it, they saw Zhang entering a storage closet twice in one day, once for 54 minutes and again for 90 minutes later in the day. On another day, they observed Zhang in the closet for 90 minutes in the afternoon and another 78 minutes in the evening. 
 
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 Zhang tells the TV crew he is taking his meal breaks during that time, although a BART representative told KTVU employees eat their lunch in the separate break room. BART employees are normally given 30 minutes for lunch, although BART doesn't track their breaks. 
 
 KTVU also discovered that Zhang failed to clock in or out 16 times in one year. 
 
 
 
 Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station. 
 
 Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet 1 / 23 Back to Gallery 
 
 Last year, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told SFGATE that Zhang was paid every single day in 2015 and provided a breakdown of his pay and benefits for the year: 
 
 For regular hours he did: 
 
 1420.73 regular hours 
 
 24 hours of protected sick leave 
 
 192 of vacation hours 
 
 48 hours of holiday pay 
 
 3.27 of administrative leave 
 
 For overtime he did: 
 
 63 hours of "holiday work" 
 
 1821.53 hours of time and a half (1.5 for regular day off 1). 
 
 601 hours of double time (2 for regular day off 2) 
 
 Transparent California found that Zhang worked 17 hours a day for 18 days in a row in July 2015, a feat that a writer from the nonprofit called "super human." 
 
 "This employee signs up for every overtime slot that becomes available," Trost told SFGATE. "He is likely working almost every day of the year cleaning our stations. He is signing up for time that is also available to others — if he doesn't take the hours, someone else will. The sign-ups are based on seniority." 
 
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 BART confirmed that 49 other janitors made over $100,000 in 2015 and that no city, state or federal regulations prevented employees from working that much voluntary overtime. 
 
 None of those employees have been audited, BART told KTVU. ||||| SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) -- A BART janitor who earned more than a quarter million dollars in salary, overtime, and benefits made headlines for his eye-popping pay. 
 
 But now 2 Investigates has uncovered some serious questions about how he earned all that money and why supervisors haven’t taken a closer look. 
 
 The janitor, Liang Zhao Zhang, earned $57,945 in base pay in 2015 for cleaning San Francisco’s Powell Street station. But according to public records uncovered by Transparent California, his also raked in an additional $162,050 in overtime, bringing his total salary and benefits that year to $271,243. 
 
 “It’s absolutely outrageous,” said Robert Fellner, with Transparent California. 
 
 Fellner has examined public employee salary information for years, and says he has never seen anything like this. 
 
 “For Janitors that’s obscene! It’s unconscionable!” 
 
 2 Investigates obtained Zhang’s timecard data and plotted it out over the calendar year. The results showed the BART paid Zhang every single day in 2015. Most days he worked overtime, clocking in about 17 hours of work. He also used some days of paid vacation and holidays in order to rake in pay for 365 days that year. 
 
 In one stretch during July 2015, Zhang worked 17 hour days for 18 days straight, according to timecard records. 
 
 “Super human!” said Fellner. “The average reaction to that is ‘How is that possible?'" 
 
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 BART’s Chief Transportation Officer Roy Aguilera says it’s possible because Zhang never refuses extra work and picks up much of the overtime hours offered. 
 
 Aguilera says the population of homeless people who spend time in the Powell Street station means the janitorial staff spends much of their time cleaning up urine, feces, and needles, which he calls “totally unacceptable.” 
 
 “People are not raising their hands and saying, ‘I want some of that overtime.’ Mr. Zhang has said yes, he’s worked hard, he’s completed his assignments, so I stand by the work he’s done,” Aguilera said. 
 
 When asked whether he’s check up on Zhang’s performance, time cards, or overtime hours, Aguilera said he personally hasn’t but the supervisors working under him have. 
 
 2 Investigates learned that BART has never conducted an extensive investigation of Zhang’s time cards, despite the janitor earning more than $705,000 in pay and benefits during the four years from 2012 to 2015. 
 
 Graph Source: BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost 
 
 There have also been 49 other BART janitors who have earned more than $100,000 in 2015, and the agency also confirmed it has not audited or investigated those employees either. 
 
 In an email, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said “There are multiple management systems in place to ensure hours worked and assignments are completed.” She also confirmed there is no future audit being considering after KTVU’s investigation. 
 
 But when 2 Investigates randomly checked on Zhang’s performance and timesheets, discrepancies and questions quickly arose. While inspecting two random days of surveillance video from BART’s own security cameras, KTVU investigators spotted Zhang working, sweeping, mopping on a riding machine, and taking out the trash. But, according to the timestamp on BART’s video, Zhang also appears to have disappeared inside a storage closet for hours at a time. 
 
 On the first day that 2 Investigates logged, Zhang appears to go into the closet twice, for 54 minutes and 90 minutes respectively. On the second day of video, he spends 90 minutes in the closet in the afternoon, and another 78 minutes behind the door later that evening. 
 
 A BART spokesperson said she cannot be certain that Zhang is the janitor pictured in one of the video clips, but that in other instances it is “obvious.” She said the janitors may be cleaning, repairing equipment, or taking breaks in that closet, but the agency does not track breaks. Earlier, though, Aguilera had said the closet is not a break room and employees eat their lunches in a separate room in a different part of the station. But he wouldn’t allow 2 Investigates to see inside the closet. 
 
 2 Investigates also found questions on Zhang’s timesheet. Over two months, he failed to clock in or out to verify his hours three times. BART General Manager Grace Crunican said she wasn’t aware of those discrepancies. 
 
 “Well, this piece is news to me, yes that would be concerning if we had an examination with the supervisor and there wasn’t a good reason for that.” 
 
 Crunican also said she has not personally seen the surveillance video of Zhang spending hours inside the Powell Street station closet. She said she does not believe, based on the information she’s seen, that Zhang’s high pay and time sheet warrants an audit. 
 
 “We’ve increased the staffing two years in a row, we’ve reduced the overtime this past year,” she said, “we’ve reduced the number of hours for overtime.” 
 
 2 Investigates also showed Crunican video of dirty conditions at Powell Street station taken over several days. It shows sticky handrails, trash on the floor, and dirt and dust built up under benches. 
 
 “I do agree with you that those levels those standards are not good,” she said. 
 
 Aguilera argued that because of the constant need to clean up human waste and drug at Powell Street that janitors do not have time to keep the rest of the station clean. He showed 2 Investigates a list of the janitors’ daily duties and cleaning the elevators was listed as No. 2. Aguilera said the cleaning crew can rarely get past cleaning the elevators because of the constant mess. Cleaning the “restroom, offices, lunch room, and locker rooms” is number 11 on that list, and cleaning the “janitor’s room” is at the bottom. 
 
 BART administration says that Zhang’s direct supervisor approved all his timesheets and overtime, and they insist he is one of their best employees. 
 
 But Fellner disagrees, insisting that enough questions exist about how custodians are being managed that BART should have audited their overtime and pay years ago. “I would say a catastrophic management failure there.” 
 
 Source: Data compiled from timecard information provided by BART
– There's quite a difference between making $58,000 a year and $270,000, and that huge gap is why some are now poking around to see how a San Francisco janitor has been pulling in the latter. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Liang Zhao Zhang, who cleans the BART system's station at Powell Street and has a base salary of $57,945, per public records culled by Transparent California. But thanks to about $162,000 in hefty overtime pay and other compensation and benefits, Zhang raked in what amounts to $271,243 in 2015. Robert Fellner, a research director for the watchdog group, tells KTVU he's been keeping an eye on public employee salaries for years and has never seen a janitor get paid such an "obscene" and "unconscionable" amount. Nearly 50 other unaudited BART janitors also earned in the six figures in 2015. Fellner wants to know, for instance, how the "superhuman" Zhang worked 17-hour days for 18 days in a row during July 2015, a fact found during an analysis of Zhang's timecards, which turned up several "discrepancies and questions." Roy Aguilera, BART's chief transportation officer, says Zhang just grabs extra hours no one wants. But when KTVU gained access to video on BART's security cameras for two random days, it witnessed Zhang head into a storage closet and hole up there for hours (on one day he was in the closet for 90 minutes, then later on for another 78). A BART rep says Zhang may have been fixing equipment or taking a break, though Aguilera tells KTVU there's a dedicated break area elsewhere. Fellner says the situation is a "catastrophic management failure" that should've been audited long ago. (The worst-paying jobs you have to go to college for.)