An auditor for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection sent and received more than 12,000 personal text messages on his city-issued phone, running up a bill of more than $3,000, according to a settlement made public Monday.
Pierre Saint-Louis used his city-issued BlackBerry for 12,394 personal text messages over six months in violation of city regulations, the Conflicts of Interest Board said.
Almost half the texts were international.
Saint-Louis’ busy thumbs cost the city $3,089.97, a sum he agreed to pay back.
Officials said he went on his texting spree from Jan. 1, 2013, through June 30, 2013 — averaging close to 70 a day, seven days a week.
“I also used the BlackBerry to make personal phone calls each day, including nights and weekends,” Saint-Louis admitted in a settlement agreement.
Saint-Louis, 47, a city employee since 2005, was also forced to forfeit five days of annual leave, worth $1,565.
“I’m going to pay everything, so don’t worry about it,” he told The Post.
Saint-Louis, originally from Haiti, said he used his work phone to check on his ailing mother, who has since died from cancer.
He said he has a personal phone with a $10-a-month plan for international calls and texts but gets really bad service on it, so he switched to his city-issued phone.
Saint-Louis said it was common among city employees to use work phones for personal calls and texts and to pay for them at the end of each month.
“I also asked why they waited so long to come up with this,” Saint-Louis said. “If they’d given me a warning from the beginning, I would have stopped that.”
Officials said that the city has a contract with BlackBerry and other mobile providers, but that none of the plans include international calls or texts.
Saint-Louis’ union rep, Uma Kutwal, said the auditor’s biweekly paychecks will be garnisheed $50 for the next two years.
He makes about $84,000 a year, city records say.
Kutwal blasted the department for not addressing the issue sooner.
“Instead of being more constructive, they waited and let it all accumulate,” he said. “They should make their employees aware of this.”
A department spokesman did not return calls for comment.