The former president of Operating Engineers Local 150 has been sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to a misdemeanor charge of violating federal labor law by demanding and accepting custom-made livestock feeders for his Maryland buffalo farm from a company employing local members, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said.

William E. Dugan, 77, of Hancock, Md.—formerly of Mt. Prospect, Ill.—was sentenced on Thursday to three years of probation, fined $30,000, and ordered to pay restitution and other costs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Dugan—who served as president and business manager of Local 150 from 1988 through 2005—has already paid restitution of $4,800 to Local 150 and $6,000 to the Apprenticeship Skills Improvement Program.

Local 150 represents around 23,000 heavy equipment operators, some 4,100 of them in Northern Indiana.

Under the plea agreement, Dugan admitted ordering a Local 150 employee, in April 2005, to contact the vice-president of an Elgin, Ill., company and instruct the vice-president to have manufactured two “concrete open pipe-shaped devices” to be used as buffalo feeding troughs. Each weighed between three and four tons and valued at $500, and on their completion Dugan ordered another Local 150 employee to transport the feeders to Dugan’s buffalo farm in Maryland.

Dugan admitted not paying for the feeders.

Then, in July 2005, Dugan had a second pair of feeders manufactured by the same company, again had a Local 150 employee transport them to Maryland, and again did not pay for them.

Under the plea agreement, Dugan also admitted to the following violations of labor law:

•In October and November 2002, an Illinois company employing Local 150 members—rented at Dugan’s’ direction a front-end loader for use on his farm. It cost the company $7,265, which Dugan did not reimburse.

•In January 2005, Dugan purchased a skid steer—a small four-wheel drive machine—from that Illinois company for the below-market price of $2,400. The true market price was between $7,000 and $11,000, and although the skid steer was functional, the company provided Dugan with a sale receipt which identified the machine as being “inoperable.” A Local 150 member was directed to transport the skid steer to Dugan’s farm.

•Each autumn in 2003, 2004, and 2005, a farmer who grew corn on property owned by Local 150 was ordered to supply Dugan with around two 400-bushel truckloads of feed-grade corn for use on his farm. Total estimated value of the corn: $4,800. A Local 150 member driving a Local 150 semi delivered the corn to Dugan’s farm.

•In the spring of 2003 Dugan had a front-end loader belonging to Local 150 delivered to his farm and then, six weeks later, returned to the union’s Apprentice Skills Improvement Program (ASIP). Estimated value of Dugan’s use of the loader: $2,100.

•From 2001 through 2006, Dugan converted to his own use a semi belonging to ASIP for the transportation of items to his farm. The value of that use: no less than $15,000.

•In August 2005 Dugan filed a “materially false” form with the U.S. Department of Labor indicating that he had received only a $50 Christmas gift from an accounting firm which did business with Local 150, failing to disclose his receipt of the concrete buffalo feeders and the corn.

Under federal law, Dugan’s conviction bars him from participating in any union activities for 13 years.

Posted 10/15/2010