{"id":1744,"date":"2025-10-14T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1744\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T07:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:45:17","slug":"former-plantation-public-works-director-misused-4-5m-audit-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1744\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Plantation Public Works Director Misused $4.5M, Audit Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Depicted
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer Plantation Public Works Director Steven Rodgers was already facing criminal charges in connection to his time at the department when an investigation found $4.5 million in misspending under his leadership.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Photo collage by New Times from City of Plantation<\/a> and Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office images<\/p>\n

Between masterminding a covert operation to steal catalytic converters from city vehicles and ordering subordinates to use government resources to remodel family members\u2019 homes, reports about the tenure of former Plantation Public Works Director Steven Luther Rodgers read like a bad fanfic script of The Sopranos.<\/p>\n

In the quiet, suburban heart of Broward County, Rodgers rose to director of the Plantation Public Works Department in 2019 and served until the city fired him in 2023, following charges of unlawful compensation, official misconduct, and dealing in stolen property. Public works employees, who typically maintain city infrastructure like roads and handle bulk pickup, described Rodgers as a domineering boss who abused his power by coercing them to do his personal work, according to arrest affidavits from 2023.<\/p>\n

But the monetary toll of his actions remained unclear until the Broward Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced Rodgers\u2019 department misspent about $4.5 million in 2022 alone, according to the inspector general\u2019s report of the investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuestionable expenditures of this magnitude are disheartening,\u201d Broward County Inspector General Carol Breece wrote in the report. \u201cThey are the product of the Public Works Department\u2019s former disregard for a proper review and approval of employee timecards at both the employee and supervisory levels \u2014 an indispensable part of the payroll process. Without this part of a payroll process, there can be no confidence in an organization\u2019s payroll expenditures, which is especially vital when the payroll expenditures are publicly funded.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the OIG investigation stands separate from the state\u2019s criminal case against Rodgers and was intended to determine whether current protocols contributed to or curbed potential abuse, inspectors found Rodgers\u2019 department spent millions on payroll expenses lacking adequate documentation, Breece tells New Times.<\/p>\n

\"DepictedA new investigation by the Broward Office of Inspector General found Steven Rodgers\u2019 public works department misspent about $4.5 million in 2022 alone, the last of his six-year stint in the department.<\/p>\n

Photo from Broward County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem was pervasive, it was systemic,\u201d Breece says. \u201cThey needed to overhaul the entire way of approaching leave requests and submitting hours worked. It was evident opportunities for error and mischief were high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breece\u2019s investigation focused solely on the final full year of Rodgers\u2019 employment with the city, suggesting that the total loss to questionable expenses could be significantly higher. Plantation City Council has worked with Breece to correct protocol issues she found in the department, she said. City officials didn\u2019t return New Times\u2018 request for comment.<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 attorneys didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The OIG investigation determined Plantation lacked critical procedures to mitigate mismanagement, leaving the city vulnerable to financial loss at the hands of inattentive or ill-intentioned staff, Breece wrote in her findings. Supervisors weren\u2019t checking the time punches of hourly employees, leaving the responsibility to three office workers who would be physically far removed from the public works\u2019 roving job sites, Breece tells New Times.<\/p>\n

For at least the four years Rodgers was in charge, \u201cthe timecard editors inherently approved paid time off, deducted unpaid time off, and approved time worked for these employees with ADP for every pay period,\u201d according to the report. \u201cAnd they did so despite no one having cross-checked, verified, or approved the timecard editor\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unclear exactly how many employees benefited from questionable timecard punches, evidence indicates Plantation might have spent two years paying an electrician for work no one verified, Breece says. The arrest affidavit described a man who would sporadically show up at the office and did no discernible work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three timecard editors would take turns punching in his time for the week,\u201d Breece says. \u201cWhoever\u2019s turn it was would put in 40 hours a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, Breece\u2019s investigation found the city paid about $92,000 to the man for work no one verified, she said.<\/p>\n

Public Works, Private Perks<\/p>\n

According to the arrest affidavit, several employees said Rodgers enlisted them in schemes that appear to have extensively benefited him and those close to him, including:<\/p>\n

2018: Took a 2002 Emerson trailer after signing off for it to be disposed of or sold.<\/p>\n

2019-2022: Ordered a fleet supervisor and others to steal and sell catalytic converters from at least 12 city vehicles.<\/p>\n

2022: Sent a city employee to buy doors for his house in Davie twice. Ordered another city employee to pour a slab of concrete at a private home. Sent a city employee to buy steel in Fort Lauderdale and deliver it to his Davie home.<\/p>\n

February 2022: Sent a city employee to paint his girlfriend\u2019s Pembroke Pines apartment at $20\/hour for two eight-hour workdays.<\/p>\n

July 2022: Ordered a city employee to unload seven five-gallon buckets of dirt at his mother\u2019s house in Davie. Ordered a city employee to bring the city\u2019s scrap metal to his mother\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 criminal case is ongoing, with a court date set for later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Plantation Public Works Director Steven Rodgers was already facing criminal charges in connection to his time at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250,2161],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}