Sewerage & Water Board worker fired for brass theft must be rehired

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he was selling excavated scrap metal to Uptown Recycling that he had pulled from S&WB job sites.

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Thread title is pretty misleading... it was scrap brass they found while excavating, he didnt steal actual S&WB property

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So the scrap belonged to S&WB?

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Were those fittings originally installed/operated by the S&WB?

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Technically in the end it does, but he had documented it for awhile on the back of the work orders, and his supervisors never told him what to do with it. So he made the effort to give it to them.

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Even without instructions from supervisors, however, the Sewerage & Water Board found Theodore was in violation of a policy on recyclable materials promulgated in 1983 that holds "surplus property" be sold at public auction. But those auctions on scrap metal apparently were not taking place.

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Even without instructions from supervisors, however, the Sewerage & Water Board found Theodore was in violation of a policy on recyclable materials promulgated in 1983 that holds "surplus property" be sold at public auction. But those auctions on scrap metal apparently were not taking place.

The commission heard testimony from S&WB supervisors, including the deputy director of security, Ronald Doucette, who told the inspector general in June 2016 that a process for selling scrap metal had only recently been created. S&WB warehouse manager Alden Aramburo told the inspector general that its investigation into scrap metal sales prompted the new process. He told the commission that it was "rare, if ever" that S&WB employees would return used brass to the warehouse.

"Prior to 2016, warehouse employees would not have known what to do with brass recovered from work sites and would have simply directed field personnel to put it in an unsecured bin designated for scrap metal," the commission wrote. A third manager, Johnny Jones, told the commission that even if field employees did try to dispose of scrap metal for later auction, they would have been turned away. "Mr. Jones testified that when employees under his supervision in the networks division began bringing scrap metal to the warehouse, employees at the warehouse would refuse to receive it," the commission report said. "Eventually, the S&WB secured a dumpster for the scrap metal."

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