Troubles at landfill continue

By ED BALDRIDGE

ed.baldridge@newssun.com

SEBRING -- Troubles continue at the Highlands County Landfill as two supervisors have been suspended after an investigation into falsified time cards.

Solid Waste Director Ken Wheeler and Landfill Operations Manager Dick Gorman were both placed on probation by Acting County Administrator Rick Helms on Friday.

Helms stated that Wheeler will be off for a week and Gorman will get two weeks suspension. Both men were also put on probation as well as the suspension.

The landfill has been plagued with fuel spills, monitoring well issues, fines from the Florida Department of Environmental and bio-reactor pump equipment failures over the last year.

Additionally, a Clerk of Courts audit of the asphalt plant, which was under the direction of Wheeler, showed several discrepancies in the way the financial aspect and fund accounting of the plant was being kept.

The audit also showed an operating loss of more than $1 million for the first year.

The Wheeler and Gorman investigation began after ex-County Administrator Michael Wright, who had ordered Wheeler to fire Gorman and Landfill Mechanic Carl Beckman, was terminated.

Helms started his own investigation on June 15.

Logs from the landfill that track the comings and goings of employees show that Gorman and Beckman were leaving and returning to the landfill at different times than they were putting down on their time cards, many times taking up to 90 minutes for lunch and writing down just 30 minutes.

Beckman's time cards also show that he was getting overtime on a regular basis, something that the cash- strapped county could not afford.

Wright's memo to Wheeler claimed that Beckman was repairing personal vehicles in the county facility, something which is also prohibited.

In a report given to Helms on July 30 from Community Services Division Director June Fisher, statements from 15 landfill employees showed personal knowledge that Beckman regularly repaired vehicles at the landfill that were not owned by the county, and that several employees had paid Beckman for their repairs.

Wheeler defended Beckman in his response to Wright by stating that Beckman was not doing repairs on county time, only using the concrete pad and not using county tools for the repairs.

Wheeler also stated in his memo to Wright that he would "look into the charges" of time card fraud and that Beckman and Gorman were spending the extra time talking about "county business" during their lunches together.

Wheeler was contacted for comment via cell phone on Monday, but had not returned the call at press time.