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Mostly Cloudy Rice: Two city employees stole $14,000 worth of equipment
Allegedly sold salt spreaders to scrap metal company
A Long Beach Highway Department supervisor and a former highway employee allegedly stole $14,000 worth of equipment and sold it as scrap for just $300, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Tuesday.
Oceanside resident Charles Porcaro, 48, an assistant supervisor in the Long Beach Highway Department, and Long Beach resident Jeorking Welker, 34, a former part-time employee with the department, allegedly stole three metal salt spreaders valued at approximately $14,000 from the department, and sold them to a scrap metal company for $313, according to Rice.
Rice said that the incident happened in late September when, in preparation for the Long Beach Fall Festival, workers from the city’s Highway Department, including Porcaro, were instructed to transport the three metal salt spreaders from a locked Highway Department facility to an unlocked department storage lot, both in Long Beach.
According to Rice, once the three salt spreaders were transported, Porcaro — knowing that he did not have permission to give them away — contacted Welker stating that there were salt spreaders in the yard if he wanted to take them. About a day later, Welker allegedly rented a truck in Oceanside for the purpose of transporting the equipment; about one day after that, Welker allegedly sold the equipment. The equipment was scrapped and is unrecoverable, Rice said.
But Porcaro’s attorney Charles Peknic maintains that his client is innocent.
“Our position is that Charles had nothing to do with the theft, and whatever the co-defendant did, he did on his own,” Peknic said. "There are no allegations that Charles took the salt spreaders or took them from the locations, and he is denying any involvement in the theft.”
An attorney for Welker could not immediately be reached for comment.
City Manager Jack Schnirman said that the administration invited the D.A.’s office to assist the city with its investigation of the missing equipment.
“This administration has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to employee misconduct,” Schnirman said in a statement.
