Wednesday, May 6, 2009

School custodian really cleaned up

From the Daily News:

A Queens school custodian cleaned out taxpayers' wallets by using janitors to work on his home and billing the city for thousands of dollars worth of detergent, light bulbs and toilet paper, officials said.

Gerard O'Brien, a 20-year custodian who resigned from the Department of Education in February, agreed to pay a $20,000 fine in a decision released Monday by the Conflicts of Interest Board.

"We were about to discipline him," said DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg. "He was facing serious disciplinary charges, and he retired."

He said he bought personal supplies at three stores but billed them to John Adams High School in Ozone Park, using false invoices to cover his tracks.

3 comments:

linda said...

lmao, does this surprise anyone?

god knows bloomberg most likely doesn't pay enough to the janitors, so he figured ah fuck'em. just shows how corrupt this city is.

anonymous said...

The article said school "custodian", not janitor. Janitors work under the custodian. Years back there was an expose on all the perks custodians receive and their exorbitant "budgets" (sometimes more than the principal of the school they work at.) Notice I said work AT, not FOR. They are completely autonomous and have almost no accountability until something like this is discovered.Their union is one of the most powerful in the city. Just another example of our tax dollars at work!!

Anonymous said...

The article said school "custodian", not janitor. Janitors work under the custodian. Years back there was an expose on all the perks custodians receive and their exorbitant "budgets" (sometimes more than the principal of the school they work at.) Notice I said work AT, not FOR. They are completely autonomous and have almost no accountability until something like this is discovered.Their union is one of the most powerful in the city. Just another example of our tax dollars at work!!


Googel: NYC School's Special Investigator's report on School Cutodians Edward Stancik 1995, I think.