Claude Huff, the former president of the local union that represents Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority drivers and technicians, was routinely paid for 75 hours of work per week, according to a union memo.

Huff, former president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1385, received the pay even though he indicated there was “no membership authorization” for him to receive that amount of pay, the May memo said.

Not long after the memo’s release, Huff retired from the RTA, effective June 30. Huff resigned the presidency of Local 1385 in mid-November, a day before a hearing before international officers on allegations he overpaid himself. The local union is now being run by its parent international union.

Shawn Perry, an international spokesman, said an investigation is ongoing. The international union would not disclose Huff’s annual pay.

Huff could not be reached for comment.

The memo said it appeared that Huff, not the local’s financial secretary, performed “essentially all the (local’s) financial functions.” Asked if it was unusual for local ATU presidents to perform functions normally reserved for financial secretaries, Perry said, “It depends on the local and its size.” Asked if ATU local presidents can determine their own pay, Perry said, “I really don’t know. Our locals have a high degree of autonomy.”

Marick Masters, director of Wayne State University’s Douglas Fraser Center for Workplace Issues, said local unions typically have secretary-treasurers “sign off” on key financial actions. “You don’t have one person controlling the purse strings,” Masters said.

Internationals have an interest in making sure member dues are carefully handled, he said. “Locals are really institutional creatures of the international, and the international has an obligation to police their affiliates,” Masters said.

David Walsh, a Miami University associate professor whose specialties include labor relations and employment law, said local unions usually operate under a degree of scrutiny, overseen by internationals or union bylaws and local officials. “There would be a number of checks and balances,” Walsh said.

Walsh said he regards that kind of governance — local presidents performing the duties of financial secretaries, for example — as an “aberration.”

“This is not the norm,” Walsh said. “This is not how unions typically operate.”

In an era of concern about corporate malfeasance, unions also should be expected to adhere to ethical and financial standards, Walsh said.