Irvine Public Works Chief Resigns Post

After serving a two-week suspension without pay for allegedly misusing city property and staff time, including having his secretary type his master’s thesis, Public Works Director Harry Ehrlich resigned Tuesday.

Ehrlich, 45, leaves an $87,000-a-year job. He was suspended without pay from Nov. 20 to Dec. 6 and ordered to reimburse the city $2,000 for several misuses of city property and workers. He had held the job for about five years.

Over a series of years, he had asked his secretary to type papers for his schoolwork on city time and finally to type his thesis, City Manager Paul Brady Jr. said. Other allegations involved a city truck borrowed on a weekend for private use, city lighting fixtures that turned up on an Idaho farm, and packets of coffee taken from other departments for Erlich’s front office.

A city investigation was begun based on information provided to Brady by a department employee.

Brady said Ehrlich’s resignation, effective Jan. 15, “was a mutual thing. We discussed it during the course of the last few weeks and decided that over the long term it was in his best interests to seek other opportunities.”

Ehrlich said Tuesday that city officials had treated him fairly in ordering the suspension.

The improprieties “occurred over the course of the last six years,” Ehrlich said. “I was found to be responsible to a varying degree.”

Brady said that in one of the incidents, Erlich directed city employees on a weekend day to borrow a Hertz truck from the city yard, transport some equipment to a canyon, set it up and later dismantle and return it. The work was done for the Fire Department, for which Erlich is a volunteer firefighter, Brady said.

In another instance, surplus city lighting fixtures and other electronic equipment turned up on a former city employee’s Idaho farm. The employee, Brent Muchow, told investigators that Ehrlich had allowed the fixtures to be used on the farm--a claim Erlich denied. Investigators determined that in any case, Erlich had not kept a proper accounting of the property’s whereabouts, Brady said.

He said Erlich also had been accused of taking packets of coffee from other departments for his office without reimbursing the employee kitty for them. After the investigation, Erlich repaid the kitty about $20, Brady said.

Erlich, a 15-year city employee, heads a department with about 250 employees.

His decision to resign, he said, was based in part on on his failure last summer to get the job of assistant city manager.

“Obviously I was disappointed,” he said. “That makes you look at things and look at where you are going from here.”