Sacramento – Governor Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, left state service with two things in mind: a federal corruption investigation and more than $50,000 in pay for vacation time he earned but never took.
State payroll records reviewed by the Times show that Williamson used nearly $30,000 in unused vacation time to remain on California’s payroll until Jan. 31 — seven weeks after Newsom’s office indicated she was gone — before taking an additional $22,000 lump sum payment for the hours she left.
For the record:
March 16, 2026 at 10:33 amAn earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Dana Williamson’s attorney, McGregor Scott, did not respond to a request for comment. He replied but his email was inadvertently ignored. The story has been updated to include his comment.
Large cash payouts along with hundreds of hours of leave have been a recurring issue for departing state workers in California. The state’s unfunded liability for employee vacations and other holidays has grown to $5.6 billion in recent years due to a long-standing failure to enforce generous time-off provisions and policies that limit most employees’ vacation balances to 640 hours.
Many state employees accumulate large amounts of unused vacation after being on the government payroll for decades. The typical public employee retires Over two decades in public serviceAccording to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Their unused time is paid when they leave State employment at their final rate of pay.
However, Williamson accrued 462 hours of unused vacation in less than two years on the job. As chief of staff to the governor, he earned $19,612 per month.
Williamson’s attorney McGregor Scott said, “Jobs of Ms. Williamson’s level in the Governor’s office offer very few opportunities for leave.” “The compensation he earned was paid in full compliance with California state law. It’s that simple.”
John Moorlach, director of the conservative think tank Center for Public Accountability at the California Policy Center, said a job like Williamson’s often requires incredibly long workdays, but the pace at which employees accumulate vacation days is a huge financial burden.
“A typical blue-collar worker would say, ‘Really? In fact?said Moorlach, a former Republican state senator from Orange County. “You don’t get this benefit in the private sector.”
The governor’s office said Williamson notified Newsom in November 2024 that he was under federal investigation and placed him on paid administrative leave until December 16.
Federal charges against Williamson, which were filed in November 2025, allege that she embezzled $225,000 from gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra’s inactive state campaign account and illegally claimed $1 million in luxury handbags and travel as business expenses on her tax returns. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A status conference in Williamson’s case was moved to April 16 due to Williamson’s recent successful liver transplant and the large amount of discovery — more than 280,000 pages so far — according to court records filed last month.
State payroll records show Williamson will earn $40,000 in regular salary in 2025, which the state comptroller’s office said includes pay for December 2024 and January 2025. The governor’s office said Williamson’s December 2024 pay check included 11 days of paid administrative leave, and the remainder of both pay checks was covered by her unused leave.
With a final cash out of $22,000 in vacation time remaining, she made a total of $62,000 last year – all of which was tied up in administrative leave and unused vacation time rather than worked time.
“It’s shocking, to be honest,” Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) said, adding that the overall holiday timing is something the state Legislature should look at.
The state paid out $453 million in unused leave benefits to state employees in 2025. That was an average of more than $20,000 for the 21,000 workers who received a one-time check. The amount paid to departing or retiring state employees has increased steadily every year. In 2024, the state paid $413 million for unused furloughs.
“Obviously, employees are a vital part of our state and they earn vacation time,” Hoover said. “But, if it’s being used to pay people’s salaries… then we need to look at that and possibly improve it.”
Last year, 80 state employees took home at least $250,000 in unused time, and 1,081 employees were paid more than $100,000. This number is increasing every year. For example, the state paid 16 state employees more than $250,000 for unused time in 2010, and 309 employees were paid more than $100,000.
In 2024, the state paid a record $1.2 million for unused time off to a dentist who oversees the prison. Last year, the maximum amount paid for unused vacation to an assistant fire chief in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was approximately $650,000.
The state owes state employees about $5.6 billion for unused vacation and other leave benefits in 2024, according to the latest financial accounting report released by the Office of the State Comptroller. Although that unfunded liability remained stable through 2023, it has increased sharply from pre-pandemic levels.
In 2019, the state was owed $3.9 billion for employees’ unused time off, before COVID-19 cut travel and work-from-home policies resulted in fewer employees being furloughed. State employees have argued that it may be difficult to take leave due to understaffing at state agencies.
Nick Schroeder, a policy analyst with the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office, said the state has a plan to reduce unfunded liabilities for pensions and retiree health care, but that’s not the case for unused time off.
“There’s no plan in place to deal with it,” Schroeder said.
When an employee retires with extended leave, the amount is arraigned by the department where the person last worked.
“It can have a big impact on that individual department’s budget,” Schroeder said.
During budget deficits – including the current fiscal year – the state has cut workers’ pay or deferred annual raises in exchange for additional days off, a strategy that helps balance the budget but also increases workers’ growing leave balances.
In Newsom’s January budget proposal, which projected a $3 billion deficit, the governor recommended providing $91 million in ongoing funding to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to help the prison system pay departing staff for their unused time. The department said that from 2020 to 2025, it paid an average of about $130 million annually to employees leaving the state service, According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office report.
When employees cash out bank holidays, the state pays them not only for the hours they have accrued, but also for the additional holiday and holidays they would have earned if they had taken that time off.
This means that a person with 640 hours of leave will also be paid for all holidays and vacations that they would have earned if they had taken those 80 days off. Each hour of vacation is paid based on the employee’s final salary – not based on the time they were accrued.
Most private sector employers set a limit on vacation time between 40 and 400 hours and prevent employees from accruing overtime when they reach that limit. Some companies have moved in the opposite direction, adopting “unlimited paid leave” policies. Under those systems, employees do not accumulate vacation days that can be banked or cashed in, but critics say the policies can lead to employees taking less time off because there is no guarantee of days off and employees may feel pressure not to appear absent.
John Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said it appears there is little interest at the state Capitol to address California’s growing holiday liability.
“This problem is systemic within California government and no one is willing to take it on,” Coupal said. “At the same time, they’re making noises that there’s a budget crisis. I suspect they’ll continue to take to the streets.”
