A Department of Homeless Services supervisor treated his staff like his private taxi service, ordering them to drive him home, to his girlfriend’s house and even to the airport, the city’s ethics watchdog found.
Erick Green admitted to the move while settling an ethics case brought by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, getting hit with a 30-day suspension and a demotion from lieutenant to sergeant, costing him about $7,000 in annual pay.
“On almost a daily basis, I directed on-duty subordinate DHS peace officers to drive me between my work location on Randall’s Island and at or near my home or my girlfriend’s home in [The] Bronx,” Green testified in the settlement he signed with the COIB, announced on Tuesday.
“I directed on-duty subordinate DHS peace officers to take me grocery shopping, to pick up lunch for me, to take me to a United States passport office, to drive me to the airport for vacation, to drive me to and from a funeral and to run other personal errands for me,” continued Green, describing the to-do list with which he saddled his staff.
Green also admitted to officials that he directed his subordinates to “omit” the trips from official records.
The COIB settlement shows that Green ordered his underling to ferry him around for a year-and-a-half, “at least” — from January 2016 through August 2017.
Green was first hired in April 2004 and made $85,582 in pay, overtime and other compensation during the city’s most recently completed budget year, records show.
A publicly-listed phone number for Green was out of service on Tuesday.