Police arrested a former city government intern on charges of stealing $7,425 in collected parking fines — or at least that much.
Besides being an embarrassing alleged episode in and of itself, the case revealed two internal-systems flaw in city government.
The arrestee, who lives in New Haven and turns 26 years old on Sunday, worked in the city office that processes parking-fine payments. (The office falls under the auspices of the accounts receivable department, not traffic and parking.) The intern turned himself in to police headquarters Thursday for arrest for first-degree larceny on a warrant prepared by Detective Sgt. Elisa Tuozzoli, who researched the case.
The intern allegedly processed parking fines as having been excused when in fact they were paid, and then allegedly kept the cash. The alleged theft came to light in September, at which point the city terminated the intern and handed the information to the police.
How much cash? Hard to tell. Tuozzoli could research thefts dating back only to January 2015, the point at which the city updated its computer system.
That’s one problem. Another problem: The suspect — who according to officials is related to an employee in a different city department — worked as an intern for about five years. He was believed not to have been a student any longer.
“We don’t have a great system for keeping track” of whether interns, who are supposed to be students, stay in school while continuing to work and get paid, said city human resources chief Stephen Librandi. “There are times when they stay longer than we should. We’re trying to correct hat. We have some issues internally that we have to deal with, that will go away in the next couple of months or so.”
It’s not unusual for internships to last years, said City Controller Daryl Jones, whose office oversees the accounts receivable department.
“As long as they’re still in school, they can continue to work as an intern for the city,” Jones said. “We have a huge intern program. I alone in my department division have 50 interns. The alders have blessed [the program] — we try to teach them and prepare them for the workforce.”
Government at its finest.