County Worker Suspended Over Personal Projects
A Los Angeles County Public Works Department foreman has been suspended for 30 days for ordering workers to build boat racks, duck decoys and other items for his personal use.
But the shop manager who filed the complaint says such abuses have gone on for 15 years and extends far beyond the one shop that the county investigated.
“We’ve stopped it here at this yard, but it goes on today all over this department,” said Rudy Rico, manager of the department’s Pasadena instrument shop.
Foreman Larry Parrish was suspended after an audit showed at least 30 hours of county time had been used on projects for his personal benefit.
A recommendation to fire the foreman was rejected after county attorneys learned that other workers had gone unpunished for similar offenses, said county Chief Auditor J. Tyler McCauley. Parrish declined to comment except to say that he had been made a scapegoat.
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