Audit reveals “super-human” overtime at Los Angeles Transportation Dept.

A new audit from Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin found that four employees in the Traffic Paint and Sign division received at least $70,000 in overtime pay.

One employee effectively tripled his city salary, the audit found.

Galperin said the audit found employees claimed to work "nearly super-human work schedules," with one claiming to have worked 261 hours in two weeks. That employee reported working 18-hour days on 10 occasions during that period, and at least 16 hours on four days.

"One might reasonably conclude that at least some of the employees in the Traffic Paint and Sign section were committing payroll fraud," Galperin wrote in his audit report. But the report added that "there is less than sufficient evidence" to pass the findings onto "law enforcement, or to a criminal prosecutor.”

In all, 93 percent of Traffic Paint and Sign employees reported overtime, compared with 49 percent in most other city departments, excluding fire, police and other transportation employees.

The average overtime pay of Traffic Paint and Sign employees was about $48,000, compared with $8,300 for many other city departments, the audit found.