Kansas University leaders say they keep close tabs on how supplies, machinery and equipment are used across campus.

Bill Reed disputes that.

“It just seems like there’s an awful lot of people looking the other way,” said Reed, a painter who has worked at KU since February 2003.

Reed has been contacting lawmakers and KU leaders alleging mismanagement, favoritism, and misuse of supplies and equipment within the 1,400-person facilities operations department.

He bases the claims in large part on an incident that happened in late 2003, when an employee of KU’s paint shop was found working on a side job using university equipment and on university time – something that’s expressly forbidden under KU rules.

Reed was one of a group of employees who witnessed the event. He said his supervisors never treated it as a serious violation, which leads him to believe it wasn’t an isolated incident.

Another painter, Ken Eisenbart, said he didn’t know how often equipment was misused at KU, but he shared Reed’s concerns about alleged favoritism. He and Reed claim the employee who reported the 2003 incident to higher-ups received bad job assignments afterward.

“We’ve got one guy that showed up late two weeks in a row, and nothing’s said,” Eisenbart said.

KU official responds

A KU leader said he was taking Reed’s concerns seriously, even though the 2003 incident was the only clear-cut case of misuse of property cited by Reed.

KU Vice Provost Jim Long, who oversees facilities operations, used a June 6 meeting with about 40 supervisors from the department to remind them of the importance of properly using state equipment and following university policies. He said the school followed rules for handling state property that were so restrictive that even extra tulip bulbs and outdated computers must be disposed of through the proper channels.

Bill Reed, who works at the Kansas University Facilities and Operations department, is frustrated with what he thinks is widespread misuse of equipment and supplies within the department.

“We’re being responsible stewards of the state’s resources,” Long said.

Long said he believed misuse of equipment was rare and was always handled when discovered. He said the employee who did the side job in 2003 was disciplined, though he said personnel rules prohibited him from saying how.

“Situations that come along are dealt with swiftly and consistently,” Long said.

Concerns shared

Reed said he noticed shortly after he started working at KU that the paint shop regularly was used after hours. In September 2003, he and other employees said they saw a customer picking up doors and trim at the shop from an employee who was working on the materials for a side business.

Eisenbart said he’d been told the employee was ordered to repay the costs of stain and varnish but kept his job.

“They got all excited and nothing happened,” Eisenbart said. “It was all hush-hush after that.”

Stan Yoder, who oversees the paint shop, said he couldn’t comment on the issue.

In May, Reed sat down for a face-to-face meeting with Long to describe his concern. Reed also has sent letters to state lawmakers including Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence.

Sloan said he notified KU’s administration about the issue but said it wasn’t his role to investigate.

Long said facilities operations employees have been disciplined recently for offenses as minor as taking about $1 worth of supplies.

“They’re not going to overlook stuff of a more serious nature,” KU spokesman Todd Cohen said.