Caltrans Suspends 2 S.D. Cashiers : $13,600 Missing; Agency Chief Vows ‘to Clean House’

Two San Diego-based state Department of Transportation cashiers have been suspended without pay indefinitely after an audit covering 1985 revealed that $13,600 was missing from the San Diego district office, officials of the troubled agency said Tuesday.

The suspensions came a day after state Transportation Director Leo J. Trombatore expressed shock over recent disclosures regarding abuse of overtime and expense allowances and vowed “to clean house.”

The suspended employees, who were told of the action and sent home Tuesday, were identified only as cashiers in the department’s San Diego district office, where they handled money from rental properties and the sales of books, pamphlets and road plans.

Spokesman Gene Berthelsen said discrepancies in accounts handled by the two were discovered during a routine internal audit begun in November and concluded last week.

Berthelsen said that the findings of the audit have “not yet” been shared with the San Diego County district attorney nor the state attorney general but that a referral to authorities “is a possibility.”

Under state civil service rules, the two employees, who earned between $18,000 and $23,000 annually, have five days to ask for a hearing to appeal their suspensions. Berthelsen said the department’s position at administrative hearings might be jeopardized if the identities of the two cashiers were disclosed.

About 1,000 of the department’s 15,000 workers are assigned to San Diego, half of them within the district office at 2829 Juan St. But only two people handle the cashiering chores, James Larson, Caltrans spokesman in San Diego, said. Meanwhile, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee and a department critic, is seeking an audit of department overtime and travel reimbursement practices by the state auditor general, who is an employee of the Legislature.

Katz said he will ask the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to order a broad probe of the department this week.

Katz charged that Trombatore’s internal house cleaning was “a case of the fox guarding the hen house.” He said Trombatore “wants the same people who are sanctioning the abuse to review the abuse.”

Berthelsen said Caltrans officials feel capable of conducting a vigorous investigation themselves but that, “if there is an independent investigation, our intention is to cooperate.”

Last week, Katz asked for an investigation of a department deputy director in Los Angeles who has claimed out-of-town living stipends for more than three years and has approved his own expense vouchers.

The department’s policies are also under scrutiny because of disclosures that some employees have collected overtime pay that boosted their annual salaries by $25,000, to $50,000.

“It all seems to point to the question we raised . . . Who’s in charge and who’s minding the store?” Katz said. “And the answer appears to be: ‘No one.’ ”