Work history

and Swanson didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

Investigators said the kickbacks included a $25,000 down payment on a house Swanson sold to Cross, according to police records.

Swanson transferred ownership of a house to Cross in March 2006, according to Maricopa County Recorder’s Office documents.

Cross, Swanson and Clark have pleaded not guilty to the charges. A Superior Court judge has scheduled their trial for Nov. 26.

Cross also faces a drug-possession charge. Police in May arrested him after finding powder cocaine in his vehicle, according to police records.

City audit

than $2,000, police said.

The city’s auditors and public-works officials said the suspicious payments to the firm likely would have gone unnoticed if it weren’t for a publicworks property manager who questioned a few pending invoices for the truck-washing company in June 2010, about two months after Cross retired.

“It’s difficult to detect fraud when there’s collusion” among a group, said city auditor Bill Greene. “One is covering the other’s tracks.”

Through a public-records request, The Republic obtained copies of Cross’s personnel file, which showed he received spotty performance reviews since he was hired in 1988. Cross was reprimanded at least four times during his 22 years with the city, including infractions some treat as terminable offenses.

City records show Cross did not appeal the reprimands or warnings in any of these disciplinary incidents:

» Nov. 5, 1998: Cross’s thensupervisor wrote a letter of reprimand and placed Cross on 10 days of suspension after Cross had “received a body massage in a conference room at Public