TDOT: Alleged Employee Misconduct

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Posted 7:20 PM 9/10/2012 : Tucson city employees busted for watching porn during work

TUCSON - The Tucson City Transportation Department in hot water again after an investigation showed five employees were using their computers for decidedly "not safe for work" purposes.

This time, employees on the Engineering division, specifically the Inspection side, are under scrutiny. A Tucson Police investigation shows five employees were looking at porn on computers while on the job. This comes just days after five members of the street crews were terminated for corruption.

Some of those employees either resigned or retired.

Vice Mayor Steve Kozachik says, "You got golf employees being investigated, now you got these guys watching porn on taxpayers dime."

One of the employees reportedly falsified his hours on his time sheet. News 4 Tucson obtained documents detailing what each employee did. News 4 Tucson is not naming them because city officials say they're not going to charge them criminally.

In the documents, police investigators found they were "viewing pornography" on city computers. It was "Adult-hardcore pornography that they viewed up to three times a week." One employee even confessed to watching "teenage pornography one time," the report states.

When detectives asked for one of the employees to turn over his computer, the Forensics Unit discovered the employee had used a program called "ccleaner .exe," which was used to wipe the computer's memory.

One employee was terminated but instead resigned rather than be fired. Three were suspended without pay, and the remaining employee was given a written reprimand.

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild says, "We're trying to signal to the people of the city that under the new administration, we are not going to tolerate that kind of behavior."

Vice Mayor Kozachik has a message for the suspended employees: "You're lucky you still have a job. I can't believe people do stupid things like this in a job market the way it is right now. You walk out of this job and go and try to find work you got 15 people coming in behind you looking for yours."