Related story: Department heads docked pay
By Jane Smith
The fallout from a Delray Beach investigation into purchasing abuses continued with three environmental services employees resigning and another one put on unpaid administrative leave, according to the city manager’s interim report.
Cesar Irizarry, a treatment plant operator who resigned on Aug. 17, was connected to city vendor American Traffic Products Services, according to the Aug. 12 report. The city paid the company $230,313.39 between 2009 and 2014 for signs and poles, the report said. Irizarry was hired in December 1990.
Irizarry’s name also was listed on corporate records for vendor East Coast Underwater Repair, according to the report prepared by City Manager Don Cooper. That company was awarded a $26,250 contract in June 2010 for valves used in the city’s flood control system, according to the report.
Irizarry denied having a financial interest in either firm.
Harold Bellinger, the streets superintendent who ran the sign shop, resigned on Aug. 10. He denied knowing that Irizarry or Orlando Serrano, who resigned on March 27, was connected to the two city vendors.
Bellinger supervised Serrano, who had secured the quotes from American Traffic Products. The quotes were over $10,000 but lower than $25,000, allowing them to slip by commission scrutiny provided they had written price quotes. Many did not, the report said.
Bellinger was hired in June 1991 and Serrano in October 1996.
Jim Schmitz, deputy director of public works, was responsible for the sign shop. Schmitz said he was unaware of Irizarry’s or Serrano’s connections to outside vendors. His group did not have a formal process for checking inventory and he and Bellinger “would order sign posts and blank signs annually by ‘eyeballing’ the inventory,” the report said. Schmitz, who was hired in April 1990, was put on unpaid administrative leave on Aug. 10.
The director of the Environmental Services Department, Randal Krejcarek, told city commissioners that he planned to resign Jan. 4 to allow enough time for a search and then for him to train the replacement. He denied knowing about Irizarry’s or Serrano’s connections to outside vendors.
But the report said Krejcarek should be held responsible for lack of inventory controls in the sign shop and violating city purchasing policies. He also should ensure his employees receive records retention training.
The practices began about seven years ago when purchasing was decentralized and allowed departments to interpret state regulations and local policies on their own.
Cooper told commissioners that the investigation found a systemic culture of “not following policies and a level of not understanding, which I characterize as ignorance.” He said the abuses were not done maliciously but from “past practices that developed, but shouldn’t have.”
He also warned the employees that further abuses will receive stronger disciplinary action.
Twenty-three city employees were interviewed, 10 potential conflicts were found and three employees were cleared. Seven employees received letters of reprimand for not reporting their outside business or their role in one.
The county Office of the Inspector General and the State Attorney’s Office also are investigating, Cooper said.
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