Police employees disciplined

Police say several officers borrowed city equipment. Some maintenance workers took things such as cleanser and other supplies.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 18, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Police Department has disciplined several of its maintenance workers for taking supplies ranging from ceiling fans to vacuum cleaners to cans of a cleanser called Grease Buster.

Also, a half-dozen police officers, including a major, were written up for borrowing city equipment.

The investigation started in June when a video surveillance camera recorded two part-time custodians on the late shift taking a 21-ounce can of powdered cleanser from St. Petersburg's police station.

As managers viewed more security videotapes, the investigation widened to include more employees.

Police supervisors say this is what they found:

Custodians Glenda Caldwell and Linda Pate took cleanser. They and custodian Wylie Randolph would leave work before they were supposed to but would fill out time cards to be paid for their full shifts.

All three quit their jobs before they could be disciplined.

Custodian James Lajeunesse, suspected of stealing ceiling fans and cleanser, also quit.

Their boss, custodial foreman Edward Williams, took home a vacuum cleaner and a surge protector and also falsified his time card. Williams was fired Thursday.

Williams' boss, maintenance supervisor Michael Gilday, let employees borrow city equipment. But he didn't know some of them were leaving early. Gilday was suspended for three days on Thursday.

Two maintenance workers, David Fleming and Herb Petryniec, checked out tools for their personal use. They were given memorandums of counseling, the department's mildest form of discipline.

Supervisors also found that six police officers had borrowed city equipment such as pressure cleaners and floor buffers for their own use. The officers signed for the tools and returned them.

These six officers were given memorandums of counseling: Maj. Cedric Gordon, Sgt. Earl Rutland, Detective Robert Stewart, and officers Mike Brown, Patrick McGovern and Gerald Niles.

The Police Department takes inaccurate time cards seriously. Two years ago, it punished half of its narcotics squad for falsifying payroll records.

Thursday, the department suspended Officer R.G. Cooper for 10 days because he came to work at 3:07 p.m. one day but wrote 3 p.m. on his time sheet. Cooper had been late three times before.

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