Truesee's Daily Wonder

Mecea for NewsTrifon Radef walks from his home Thursday. The school janitor is accused of forcing city employees to work on his properties.

A brazen school janitor is accused of forcing city workers to renovate his nine Queens properties on weekends in exchange for overtime pay, sources told the Daily News.

Trifon Radef, who raked in more than $170,000 last year as a custodial supervisor at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx, even had an official punch-in clock in his basement, said one staffer who worked for Radef for eight years.

The Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation has been probing Radef since a January 2010 complaint, Education Department officials confirmed yesterday.

"The taxpayers pay for everything. Forget about it. He gets away with it until somebody says something," said the worker, who, like his colleagues, requested anonymity. "I was getting paid like I work in the school, $30 per hour."

Several workers told The News employees had done tiling, painting, carpentry, plumbing and landscaping for Radef on weekends and evenings dating back to 2000.

"I didn't think anything about it - he was the boss, and I worked for him," one of the custodians said.

Workers said they were paid just as they would have been for working at a school - and one even said there was an official time clock in the basement.

City records show Radef and his wife, Betty, own nine homes in Glen Oaks and Floral Park and have renovated them in recent years.

The workers say Radef rents out the properties and sent them to buy supplies like paint with taxpayer money.

"What could I do? He was the boss. You couldn't refuse," said a custodian who worked for Radef for three years. "I needed the money. I have family."

Staffers say they were recruited from schools where Radef worked: Roosevelt, Truman High School and Junior High School 158 in Queens.

Sources also said Radef is being investigated for paying friends for no-show jobs at Roosevelt.

Radef, who refused to comment when approached outside his Glen Oaks home, pulled in $226,234 in the 2008-09 school year due to retroactive raises and an additional janitorial assignment.

One former Roosevelt employee said he was laid off recently and blames the way Radef spent the custodial budget at the school.

"He said there was no more money, but we know he's been using it for his houses," he said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/11/06/2010-11-06_you_pay_for_his_rental_fixups_school_janitor_has_gall_to_use_city_workers_on_his.html#ixzz14VEFzkNr