Five sanitation workers were disciplined Monday — ranging from written reprimands to termination — for clocking in hours they did not work, City Manager Mike Hein said.
More will be disciplined as the week progresses, although Hein wouldn't say how many. At least three of those being disciplined are supervisors.
One supervisor, Daniel H. Sainz, the Environmental Services Department's third-ranking official, retired on Aug. 10 rather than go through the disciplinary process, according to a city memo. Sainz could not be reached for comment.
Hein said the matter is also being turned over to the Tucson Police Department to investigate criminal wrongdoing for what is termed "buddy punching" — a supervisor punching the cards of sanitation workers after they had already gone home for the day, giving them credit for time they didn't work.
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In an e-mail, Human Resources Director Cindy Bezaury said the criminal charges could be pursued against "three primary management staff." The city refused to identify the employees because the disciplinary process is ongoing. Bezaury said she expects a final decision on their fate by Aug. 24.
The city will also do an internal audit of the Environmental Services Department payroll to pinpoint how long the activity has been going on and how much the city lost. The audit is supposed to take seven weeks, Hein said.
Hein said the current investigation is in the city's brush and bulky division — the collection of yard debris and other large items that hits neighborhoods twice annually — and that it generally involves about one hour a day per employee, or four hours a week, as many sanitation employees work four 10-hour shifts a week.
"We're disappointed and a little bit angry and a little bit ashamed," Hein said, adding that he made the announcement because he didn't want the city to look like it had something to hide.
The financial hit to the city is about $100,000, Hein estimated, for the brush and bulky division. However, he said the problem probably involves other divisions in the department, which includes its East Side division, West Side division and commercial division.
Additionally, he said the financial drain could be larger in the other divisions because buddy punching could have triggered overtime that employees didn't deserve. The brush and bulky investigation didn't involve overtime, Hein said.
Deputy City Manager Mike Letcher said he believes buddy punching has been going on since the 1980s and possibly as far back as the 1970s. The department changed its policy in 1999 to state that buddy punching was prohibited. Letcher said some cities that work on a "task system" allow the practice because they let workers go home after their work is completed.
In 2005, the practice was found to be occurring again, and this summer the city made efforts to stop it, Letcher said. He said the city should have followed up more aggressively in the past.
Francis LaSala, the department's acting deputy director, said in a memo it was brought to his attention in mid-June that buddy punching was occurring, and Sainz and another supervisor confirmed it was happening. LaSala said he directly ordered Sainz and the superintendent in charge of brush and bulky to stop the practice.
He also said in the memo that in early July he discovered the same practice occurring at the department's East Side residential division.
Letcher said the reason the employees were disciplined was that they were blatantly disregarding the city's policy. "The problem is they were told to stop — they continued to do it," Letcher said.
Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said she learned about the disciplinary action on Monday and said there seems to be a pattern of people clocking in more hours than they worked.
"I think it's appropriate to investigate what's happening and take the next steps," Uhlich said. "It could be regarded as theft."
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