The alleged theft was a violation of the city’s code of ethics, according to Bart Bevers, Dallas inspector general, who is tasked with finding corruption in the city.
Oscar Ceja, an employee in Dallas’ building services department, is accused of taking the metal materials from the city. Rene Rodriguez, another employee in the building services department, allegedly drove Ceja to Ceja’s residence to drop off the materials.
During an evidentiary hearing of the city’s ethics advisory commission, Ceja pleaded true to the allegations. Rodriguez denied them. Laura Phelan with Dallas’ inspector general's office presented the case against Ceja and Rodriguez to the commission.
“This is a case of employee theft,” Phelan said. In the middle of the day in October the neighbor saw a city of Dallas truck with two men in it pull up to a neighboring house. One of the men unloaded metal materials — apparently exhaust fans. All of this was caught on the resident’s security camera.
The resident called Brian Thompson, assistant director of facility maintenance and operation with the city’s building services department, that month.“This is a case of employee theft." – Laura Phelan, Dallas Inspector General's Office
tweet this
The resident sent Thompson a video of what they saw. Thompson was able to identify Ceja and Rodriguez because he was involved in their hiring process or worked with them. After he saw the video, Thompson reached out to the public integrity unit at the Dallas Police Department to report the incident. Thompson recalled a theft ring that was discovered among city of Dallas building services employees in 2017. His experience with that led him to contact DPD’s public integrity unit.
Thompson said the city doesn’t make a concerted effort nor does it have the resources to accurately catalog all of its equipment. Because Thompson couldn’t identify the exact materials that were taken, DPD said it couldn’t take the case. So, Thompson reached out to human resources to see what the next steps should be. Eventually, the case was referred to the inspector general’s office.
The office presented the security video that allegedly captured Rodriguez and Ceja dropping off the materials. “From looking at the video, equipment being removed from a city vehicle by city employees, and the type of equipment involved is not something that you would see at someone’s house,” Thompson said. He wasn't able to estimate the exact value of the materials.
Rodriguez and Ceja had the opportunity to question the city’s witnesses themselves but declined.
Phelan called Norman Butler to testify. Butler is an HVAC manager with the building services department. He identified the materials in the video as exhaust fans. He said there are designated places where city employees are supposed to take metals, and a random property on Lippitt Avenue is not one of them. Butler was able to confirm through timesheets that the two employees were on the clock during the alleged offenses. The building services department also has GPS data that confirms the two employees were at the property on Lippitt Avenue.
Butler said he could only assume the fans belonged to the city because Ceja and Rodriguez were in a city vehicle and had previously been on city business.
Elena Wolfe, an investigator with the city’s inspector general’s office, interviewed both Ceja and Rodriguez. She told the commission that Rodriguez denied wrongdoing during the interview, but Wolfe was able to determine that Ceja did business with a recycling operation in Garland in the weeks after the materials were taken.
Both the inspector general’s office and the two employees were allowed to give closing statements during the hearing. Ceja declined. Rodriguez declined, too, saying only that “This is ridiculous” and “We can just get this over with.”
Because Ceja pleaded true to the allegations, the commission only had to substantiate the charges against Rodriguez and it did so unanimously. Ceja was ordered to undergo ethics training. The commission wasn’t so kind to Rodriguez; one commissioner said he seemed to lack respect for the entire process. The commission ultimately decided to order Rodriguez to go through ethics training and be assessed for damages. The city attorney will determine how much Rodriguez has to pay, but it could be more than $4,600.
