SAN DIEGO -- The 10News I-Team discovered San Diego taxpayers are paying more than $100,000 a year for a government employee to sit at home.

Rodger Hartnett makes $110,000 a year but said he wants to earn it.

"Now they're paying you to go sit on the beach?" asked I-Team reporter Mitch Blacher.

"I know, and all I want to do is go back and do my work," said Hartnett.

Hartnett is being paid by the San Diego County Office of Education, the I-Team learned.

"I got let go in October of 2007," said Hartnett.

"For doing your job?" asked Blacher.

"Oh yeah," said Hartnett.

Hartnett said he lost his job after he exposed how the County Office of Education was paying more than they had to for legal fees and that the fees were going to lawyers related to the public employees who hired them.

"Was it your place to say, 'we need to change things?'" asked Blacher.

"Oh yeah, part of my job was to find a way to reduce our legal expenses by about 10 percent," said Hartnett.

"So when you discovered that there was some nepotism going on, what happened?" asked Blacher.

"I reported it to my boss. No one has investigated what I reported and I don't know why. It's not like it's a secret," said Hartnett.

After Hartnett was fired, he took the board to court and won. The Board of Education appealed, and the appellate court said his firing was "unsupported by any legal authority."

The County Office of Education sent Hartnett a letter saying, in part, "There is no work available for you." The letter also said the office is "appealing the court order."

"Come on? You really want to go back to work? They're paying you more than $100,000 a year to not do anything," said Blacher.

"You know how boring it is to sit around for two years doing nothing? You go crazy. No, I want to do my job. I loved it," said Hartnett.

The County Office of Education would only tell the I-Team they couldn't talk about Hartnett's situation due to pending litigation. However, the I-Team found their letter to the court saying, "Hartnett's work was deficient."

"What about all the accusations that they make, the fact that you didn't do your job well? Is that true?" said Blacher.

"No, no. I had stellar job reviews up until the time I came forward," said Hartnett.

Taxpayer advocates said keeping employees on the payroll but out of the office is sometimes the price of doing the people's business.

"When you're talking about personnel matters and legal matters, if you make a hasty decision it could result in more taxpayer dollars being wasted," said Lani Lutar, President of the San Diego County Taxpayer Association. She did admit paying an employee to do nothing is a waste.

"Why keep fighting this?" asked Blacher.

"Because I love my job; I don't know how many other ways to say it," said Hartnett. "I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I can't help it that nobody else wants to do their job."

Hartnett is asking the Office Of Education to pay his legal fees, saying they are forcing him to fight for his job.