County’s Computer Used to Host Betting Game : Technology: Seven Martin Marietta workers are disciplined for roles in a fantasy football league logged in with social service records.
Seven Martin Marietta employees were disciplined for wagering on a fantasy football league run for several years on county computers.
County officials and a spokesman for the company, which holds a contract to operate some of the largest computer systems in county government, said this week that the football wagering did not cost the county money in computer or staff time, but did violate Martin Marietta’s policy that prohibits the use of contract equipment for personal tasks.
“It was something they should not have done and, they are not doing any more,” said Neil Lincoln, public affairs officer for Martin Marietta, a communications, electronics and defense corporation headquartered in Bethesda, Md. “Martin Marietta prides itself on ethical behavior. We hold our employees to very high standards. The use of a company computer or a customer computer for personal use is simply not appropriate.”
Lincoln refused to say what type of discipline the employees--one of whom was a supervisor--received earlier this year. No one was fired.
“It is not a big blip on the screen,” he said.
County General Services Director Bert Scott, whose department includes data operations, characterized the incident as “not a big deal” and “no different from any other office pool.”
“As far as computer time, it involved absolutely zero money,” Scott said. “Our people reviewed it and zero was billed. The (computer) time spent was not even measurable.”
Scott said the improper use of the system was limited to local Martin Marietta employees, and the computer files only involved football information. Scott estimated that the football operation had been running for about three years.
Since 1985, Martin Marietta has been under contract to the county to manage the Santa Ana-based Data Center where computer systems process such county government functions as payroll, tax assessments and data for the county Social Services Agency. About 120 Martin Marietta employees work under the contract at the county Data Center.
While installing a computer security system in January, county employees discovered files filled with statistics and rosters for the fantasy football league. County managers then notified Martin Marietta, and company officials ordered an end to the league.
Fantasy football, like rotisserie baseball, is a popular pastime among sports fans. Team “owners” pay a fee to join the league, then “draft” National Football League players for the season.
After actual NFL games each week, a “commissioner” compiles individual players’ statistics into the fantasy team results. At season’s end, the winner collects the cash.
The Martin Marietta league was run by one employee who entered the data, after work hours, to county computers, using an access code connected to the county’s Social Services agency, officials said. Six other employees “owned” teams in the league and knew it was being run on the computer, Lincoln said.
No county money was lost in connection with fantasy football, Lincoln said, because the “commissioner” logged onto the computer using an account that is not billed according to the amount of computer time used.
“What they were doing is not right, but there probably isn’t a computer of any size anywhere in America that doesn’t have a rotisserie baseball or fantasy football league running on it somewhere,” Lincoln said. “Is that the right thing to do? No. And when you find out about it, you stop it.”
