A former Dania Beach city employee “corruptly” used his job to get benefits, including cash and free home repairs, Broward County’s top government watchdog said Thursday.

The Broward Office of the Inspector General, in a report, concluded that former Public Works and Utilities Manager Jose Urtecho “repeatedly committed state ethics misconduct” by setting up contracts to vendors who in turn gave him and his girlfriend gifts, using subordinate city employees to make payments to these vendors using their city purchasing cards.

“Mr. Urtecho turned his back on the public he was supposed to serve and, instead, served himself,” according to the report.

Urtecho started working for the city in 1990. He was fired in May 2019, with the city writing in a letter it had reviewed his office computer and found he violated the rules of conduct and ethics code.

The letter also said his conduct reflected “misuse of city resources, extreme errors in judgment, and call[ed] into question the level of integrity expected of you as a long term manager, city employee and public servant.”

He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Inspector General found that from January 2016 to June 2019, the city paid $429,420.80 to four vendors.

Pest control

One of the vendors, the pest control vendor AAA Assassin Enterprises LLC, was told by Urtecho how to bid and then “submitted its bid with two lower, fabricated quotes to justify its selection.”

In return, Urtecho’s girlfriend was paid $50 to $100 at a time for typing its invoices to the city and gave Urtecho a $500 check, termite treatment at his house with a $850 discount and another $300 worth of free rodent bait and pest control chemicals, according to the report.

Investigators said Urtecho had his lead worker, a sewer mechanic, pay AAA Assassin $1,200 with his city card “prior to AAA Assassin even being awarded the contract” at a meeting at Grampa’s Bakery.

The owner of AAA Assassin denied wrongdoing, according to the report.

Construction

According to the report, Urtecho approached Decota Construction, a city vendor, “and informed him of the trouble he was having with the garage door at his house and then accepted a free garage door repair, which was worth at least $250 by Professional Garage Rolling Doors, which charged Decota Construction.

An attorney for Decota Construction, who said the company cooperated with an FBI investigation into Urtecho’s actions, told investigators that the company only gave him the name of a garage door repair man and beyond that “Decota had absolutely no involvement.”

“Decota received no benefit whatsoever for providing such contact information,” the attorney told investigators in a letter, and the statement from the repairman that Decota paid the bill “is self-serving and lacks credibility.”

Garage doors

According to the report, while garage door vendor Professional Garage Rolling Doors was doing work at his house, Urtecho asked the vice president if the company “was interested in doing some commercial work for the city.”

Investigators said Urtecho obtained and submitted a winning quote for a garage door at a city fire station, “knowing that the quote would be lower than two previously submitted quotes and knowing that it did not meet specifications.”

The investigators concluded that two other “fraudulent” bids were submitted.

The maintenance technician who had to pay the company questioned it but was told, “If I tell you to do it, you do it,” according to the report. Afraid for his job, he complied.

Professional Garage Rolling Doors’ vice president confirmed to investigators he completed the project at Urtecho’s home but “did not remember how he was paid for this project.”

Fencing

For fence vendor D & R Fencing Corp., Urtecho split the city’s payments for the procurement of fences to expedite payment to the vendor for work valued between $10,000 and $15,000, according to the Inspector General.

In exchange, that vendor provided Urtecho with a free fence at his house worth $2,500, the Inspector General said.

The owner told investigators he only charged Urtecho for labor and materials, which Urtecho paid in cash to the workers who did the job. “He said Mr. Urtecho told him that, by doing the work at Mr. Urtecho’s residence in this way, D & R Fencing would get more work at the city,” according to the report.

In response to the investigation, the city created the position of Procurement Administrator.

“Since 2019 the city has undergone a ‘renaissance’ by hiring highly trained and talented department heads that adhere to the city’s procurement policies,” City Attorney Eve A. Boutsis wrote in a memo. “All of the bad actors no longer have a relationship with the city and their employment has been terminated. The city has voluntarily cut ties with all of the investigated firms.”

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at . Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash