New London — The city has investigated a new concern over safety at the Department of Public Works transfer station and is expected to discipline at least two employees there by the end of the week.

“There has been a reported safety issue regarding gates at the transfer station,” city attorney Brian Estep told the City Council.

When pressed further about the “reported safety issue” Estep said “gates were left open that put a citizen at risk.”

Representatives of the city have already met with employees alleged to have been involved in the safety lapse, Estep said.

“The investigation has been completed, there have been pre-disciplinary meetings held with some employees and there is going to be disciplinary action taken (Tuesday) against some employees,” he said.

At least two DPW employees were to be disciplined Tuesday, but the discipline has been postponed until later this week because one of the employees called out sick on Tuesday, Personnel Administrator Tina Collins said.

She declined to say whether any DPW employees would be fired, but said that the new safety issue first came to light the first week in April and that the city’s risk manager, Paul Gills, conducted the majority of the investigation.

Collins said the ultimate decision of what level of discipline should be levied is made by Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio, Gills, herself and the department head for whom the employee in question works.

Chief Administrative Officer Laura Natusch said the mayor's office did not expect to release further information on Tuesday and referred all questions to Collins.

In March, Mounir Hage, a city employee in the DPW Solid Waste Division, was fired because he is alleged to have used a black plastic knob and duct tape to bypass a safety switch designed to prevent the trash compactor from running automatically.

Four other DPW employees also were disciplined in March, though not publicly identified, with sanctions including one reprimand, one “minor suspension” and one “severe suspension,” according to the mayor.

After the January 2014 death of Floyd Smeeton, a city resident who apparently fell into the running trash compactor at the transfer station and was crushed to death, the city implemented new safety protocols for the facility, Solid Waste Division employees were retrained and DPW enacted a zero-tolerance policy for safety violations at the transfer station, according to the mayor’s office.

The state Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Conn-OSHA) cited New London for “willful” and “serious” safety violations contributing to a hazardous work environment at the transfer station and levied a fine of $10,800 against the city after Smeeton’s death.

Among the violations found by Conn-OSHA was the failure to have railings or guardrails to prevent people from falling into the trash compactor area.

The transfer station had previously been cited in March 2010 for having no railings to protect against a possible fall, according to records obtained from the Department of Labor. The director of Conn-OSHA told The Day that because the safety issues cited in 2010 had not been rectified, the agency felt the city displayed “a plain indifference” to safety at the transfer station.

Smeeton’s death brought to light a number of safety issues at the transfer station, including the fact that no one was manning the compactor’s control room, which includes an emergency shutoff button, when Smeeton fell into the trash compactor, according to the police report on the incident. Police determined Smeeton’s death was accidental, and found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung