Official Suspended After Theft Allegations Emerge

Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima has suspended a member of the Police and Fire Commission after he was accused of stealing more than $13,000 in scrap metal from the city, according to documents released on Monday.

The commissioner, Dan Owens, was working for the Department of Public Works between February 2009 and February 2013 when he received $13,269.49 for the sale of scrap property belonging to the city, the documents state.

“It is charged that you should be removed due to conduct you engaged in while an employee of the city and while a Police and Fire Commissioner, wrongfully misappropriating from city monies you received from scrap yards in return for city scrap you delivered to the scrap yards using city vehicles,” Scrima said in the suspension.

• SEE RELATED: Suspension document signed by Jeff Scrima and City Administrator Ed Henschel.

Scrima is asking the Common Council to permanently remove Owens from the commission. City leaders have asked him to resign from the Police and Fire Commission after the allegations come forward. Owens, if not removed from the commission, would be one of the commissioners to determine if Waukesha Fire Chief Jesse Alba will keep his job after being accused of sexual harassment.

Owens told investigators that a supervisor in the department, who is now retired, had told employees to always receive cash for the sale of scrap metal. The supervisor then would give the employees the money for pizza and tools, Owens told investigators, according to a Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department report.

“Ethically I know it is wrong, and I am sick about this,” Owens told investigators, the report states. Owens added that he was led to believe that the money from the scrap metal sales was “deemed a perk of the job to scrap.”

In total, Owens believed he took home less than $4,000 from the scrap metal sales, the report states.

Two other employees are also being investigated. Owens has resigned from his position with the city, but charges have not yet been filed.

The current supervisor did not approve of the practice and brought the issue forward to city leaders and law enforcement, according to the report. The retired supervisor told investigators that he did not know where the money from scrap metal sales was supposed to go, so they used the money for retirement parties, according to the report.

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