Ah, double dipping: the public sector waste story that just keeps on going.

On my first day on the job, I did several interviews about former Premier Gordon Campbell, double dipping with a $100,000 annual provincial pension and a new, $200,000 federal post as High Commissioner to London.

Then there was the interview with Global BC on Premier Christy Clark’s criticism of BC Conservative leader John Cummins’ planned double dip of a $100,000 annual MP pension and future MLA salary. Campbell and Clark, you may recall, both ran against gold-plated MLA pension schemes in the 1996 election. After the NDP dumped the plan in the late 90s, Campbell brought it back, and allowed MLAs like Clark to buy back the time they lost.

Then there was the double dipping Delta cops, who retired with large pensions and then returned to the identical jobs within a month.

Now it’s school administration officials. On her blog, Vancouver Sun reporter Janet Steffenhagen reports that two Okanagan-Skaha trustees are trying to curb the practice in their district:

David Perry is quitting school politics but before he goes, he hopes to change a hiring practice in the Okanagan-Skaha school district that’s bothered him for some time.

It allows senior administrators to retire with full pension only to be rehired immediately on contract and without tender for the same position. He and trustee Tom Siddon have drafted a motion to stop that practice in their district, and it’s expected to be debated at a board meeting tonight (Nov. 14) – just five days before trustee elections.

Such double-dipping is not in the best interests of the taxpayer or the younger, equally competent employees, who want to move ahead and would initially be paid less, Perry said in a letter last month to the Penticton Herald.

Perry’s not opposed to boards hiring retired officials on contract when necessary, but said they shouldn’t be making in-camera deals with senior execs that allow them to retire one day and return to work the next. There have been a couple of cases in his district recently, and Perry told me a third is now seeking a similar arrangement. “It appears to be an on-going issue in our district,” he added. (This is not unique to Okanagan-Skaha district.)

Board chairwoman Ginny Manning told James Miller of the Penticton Herald that no retired administrators are on contract now but acknowledged two recent cases: former administrator Dave Stigant was hired to help with contract negotiations in the spring of 2011 and Gary Doi retired as superintendent in July 2007 and was rehired a month later on contract. (At the time, the board said it would save money because it would no longer have to contribute to Doi’s pension and wouldn’t need to conduct an expensive recruitment drive to replace him.)

No word yet on if the motion passed, but we will keep an eye on this.

So what should be done? Motions like this Penticton one are a good start. So would be a list of public sector officials who will collect more than $100,000 annually in pensions.

There should also be some sort of clawback provision, where pensions are ratcheted down while collecting other income. This is only fair to taxpayers, who are labouring under large pension payouts. Collecting two or more cheques from taxpayers for doing one job is just plain silly.