At a time when the City of Tucson finds itself in the deepest budget crunch it has faced in years, Fox 11 News has uncovered more evidence of fraud in the city’s Department of Transportation.

According to city records, a supervisor in the department, Ernesto Encinas, was suspended for two weeks without earlier this year after the fraud came to light.  Evidence obtained by Fox 11 shows Encinas had been warned in 2007 to stop the fraud, but didn’t.

It involved an employee who reports to Encinas.  Records show Ray Quihuis was put on reduced work levels by order of a city physician in April, 2007.   But disciplinary documents say Encinas did far more than that.  He ordered other employees to provide a chauffeur service to Quihuis, driving him to and from work every day.

“There’s a lot of corruption that goes on that’s covered up,” says Frederica Martin, a Tucson resident.  “He’s jeopardizing many other people and he should be more sensitive with his disability.” “I don’t feel sorry for him at all.”

And Fox 11 News has learned that Encinas did even more.  He also vouched to the city that Quihuis, even though he couldn’t drive and had no department vehicle at his home, was eligible for “on call” extra pay.

Many T-DOT employees are placed “on call” for emergencies so they can respond immediately from home during non-work hours.  They are compensated $2.75 for every hour they are listed as “on call”.  That would include the 16 hours on weekdays they are not at work and 24 hours on weekend days.  Records provided to Fox 11 show Quihuis was paid for over 800 “on call” hours during the 10 month period in question.  He received pay for those hours on top of the $30 an hour he earns for hours worked for the city.

A person we asked about this downtown who didn’t want his name used was upset to hear what went on.  “You’re making disability money and you’re getting paid per hour, and getting chauffeured to and from work.  That doesn’t make sense to me,” he says.  “For something where this guy’s making a heck of a lot of money, that’s not fair.  There’s people that make barely a quarter of that [wage] that are paying for him to do that.”  “It’s kind of disappointing too cause I love the city.” “We live in a world where people step on other people to get what they want.”

Repeated efforts to question city transportation director James Glock or others in the city about the incident were refused.  T-DOT did issue a written statement to Fox 11.  It reads:  “In response to the incidents, the department has taken appropriate action to insure that this type of behavior does not occur in the future.  The employees involved in this action have been counseled.  Disciplinary action has also been levied.  This is an internal, personnel issue that we will not discuss publicly.”

One of the questions Fox 11 News wanted to ask T-DOT employees was why Encinas was providing this special treatment to Quihuis.  Sources inside the department told Fox 11 News it was done to provide Quihuis a higher monthly retirement from the City of Tucson.  In fact, when we checked, Quihuis had put in for retirement in 2007, but he didn’t follow through with it.  He has now told the city he plans to retire on June 30, 2008.  Because of the salary and extra money he has received in the intervening months, when he retires he will receive an extra $150 each month the rest of his life over what he would have received if he had retired in 2007.

Fox 11 News did approach Ray Quihuis at his home asking for his comment on this investigation.  He refused our request for an interview, but his wife told us that now she drives him to and from work each day.

You can view the documents obtained by Fox 11 News related to Encinas discipline by clicking here.

If you have comments on this investigation, you can e-mail them to news@fox11az.com