An Auburn city employee was arrested Wednesday on charges that he used city equipment to load asphalt stored at the city landfill onto privately owned trucks for a private contractor without authorization, the Auburn Police Department said.

On July 17, city officials spoke to the Auburn Police Department regarding a possible theft of asphalt that was to be recycled at the city landfill and used as covering, Deputy Police Chief Thomas Murphy said.

According to an affidavit from APD detective Kyle Platt filed in Auburn City Court, police learned during an investigation that Thomas Gabak, 39, of 106 North Lewis St., Auburn, a Department of Public Works staffer who works at the landfill, had loaded numerous Auburn Sand And Stone dump trucks with the asphalt and gave it to Timothy Blackman, a private contractor, for free, without authorization.

Blackman, a self-employed contractor, was building a garage for a customer and needed some asphalt fillings at a low price, he said in his voluntary affidavit. He said he knew to contact Gabak, a former president of the Auburn unit of the Civil Service Employee Association, because he had provided the material for Blackman at no charge last year. Gabak agreed, and Blackman hired the Auburn Sand And Stone trucks to transport the asphalt, Blackman told police.

Despite Blackman's claim that Gabak had a history of providing the city-owned asphalt to private citizens, city Sanitation Supervisor Michael Talbot said in another affidavit that “there is no common practice” for the city to sell or give away that material.

The city calculated the total costs of the asphalt and the labor to load the trucks at $720, Murphy said.

Gabak was arrested at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, charged with petit larceny, and later released. He pleaded not guilty in Auburn City Court Friday and was released on his own recognizance. Murphy said no additional arrests are anticipated.

Auburn Corporation Counsel John Rossi said Gabak is still fully employed with the city, but would not comment further. City Manager Mark Palesh declined to

comment, and DPW Superintendent Gerald DelFavero deferred to Rossi.

Gabak could not be reached for comment Friday.

The arrest comes less than a year after the city instituted a one-time amnesty program for DPW workers who had taken city property without permission and for their own personal use. Last fall, city officials suspected items to be missing and through that program workers returned roughly $10,000 worth of property without fear of potential prosecution or losing their jobs.

Details of the amnesty program were not publicly disclosed until January, and for months officials refused to release the names of workers investigated on allegations of thefts. The city in March released the names of two long-time DPW employees that used city-owned backflow gauges for their private monetary gain.

City officials defended the initial investigation and subsequent amnesty, but by late winter city councilors Matthew Smith and William Graney as well as Palesh called for an independent investigation of how the city handled its probe. The city had contacted the state Commission of Investigation, which looks into allegations of fraud, corruption and mismanagement within local governments across the state. That agency, however, disbanded in the spring when the state Legislature declined to fund it for another year.

Smith said Friday that he still doesn't know all the facts with these latest allegations involving Gabak, but added that the city manager must make a decision that is consistent with the no-tolerance policy agreed upon during the winter.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net