Nov 5, 2009 10:39 pm US/Central
More City Workers Slacking Off On The Job
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A home video captures city workers in Jefferson Park slacking off on the job.
Home Video
It's video that has one viewer asking: "What is going on here?!" She taped what she says is a city worker on a job site, grabbing a mirror from somebody's garbage; while, she says, other workers are standing around. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent reports you've seen this kind of thing before.
Once again, we started with an e-mail from a viewer who watched our story Wednesday night about city workers not always working.
"The same scenario is occurring on the 5200 block of West Strong Street," Chris wrote. "This so blatant, it is ridiculous."
They were supposed to be pouring concrete for new curbs and gutters in Jefferson Park.
"Every time I pull up to visit my mom," Julie said, "there's maybe one worker, and the rest are standing and talking. They're observing."
From down the street, our cameras watched the In-House Construction crew from the Chicago Department of Transportation. We saw some working, others watching, one walking away.
"It's sad," Brian said. "I'm glad it's not my city tax dollars."
Brian is a concrete contractor from Kane County, who just happened to be doing a private job down the street.
"I talked to one of the workers today and he said because of the city cutbacks, they don't have the crews. They're down to skeleton crews right now," Brian said.
"There were eight men. That's not a skeleton crew," one of the neighbors interrupted.
Brian brought out the measuring tape to try to gauge the crew's progress on a job they started last Wednesday.
"102, 103 feet," Brian said the crew completed in a day.
When asked if they should be able to complete a curb in a week, Brian said, "You should be able to do one city street, both sides, in a week, and they're only doing one side."
They only had about half of it done.
Perhaps not surprising, given what Chris caught on video Thursday.
A member of the same concrete crew was filmed looking at a mirror.
"The crew is down the street talking, and he's down there by himself, fascinated by this mirror," Chris said.
A mirror which appeared by the crew's toolbox, she says, after that worker made several trips to nearby alleys. A mirror he carefully wrapped up in plastic, then fastened with tape.
"All the supplies that he's gotten are from the city box," Chris said.
After a while, he picked up the wrapped mirror and placed the mirror next to the box, and Chris left for awhile.
"When I came back later in the day, he had another bag with mini-blinds leaning up against the mirror," Chris said.
Brian said he would never get away with that behavior working for a private contractor.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said that it takes allegations like these seriously and investigates fully.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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