For two years, a Baltimore transportation department employee would work part of his shift then head home for the rest of the day — and when he was paired with another worker the second man started doing the same thing.
City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming uncovered the scheme, which she outlined Friday in a public summary of her office’s investigation.
In a written response to the investigation, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said he had conferred with the city’s top lawyer and the Department of Transportation and “these employees are no longer employed with the City of Baltimore.”
The summary does not name either man, nor say how much they were paid for time spent at home. But, it does say the case was referred to the city law department to try to get the wages back. The mayor’s letter says the men worked in the signs and markings section as traffic maintenance workers.
The inspector general described how her investigators watched one of the employees drop the other off at home, before heading on to his own home. The first employee would then come back to pick up his partner before their shift ended.
The inspector general said the first employee had been spending time at home since January 2017 and the second employee began following suit after being paired with the first. The two worked together much of the time because the second employee lost his authorization to drive city vehicles when he failed to attend a driver recertification class, according to the report.
The mayor said the transportation department is developing a new policy to “provide better oversight of field employees.”
