The city is asking Hamilton police to investigate a former parks superintendent who officials allege used city money to buy herself landscaping equipment.

City council got a closed-door update on Wednesday about one female and two male parks employees implicated in what spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos calls "a procurement issue."

The female superintendent has resigned, and the two male employees in management positions are facing unpaid suspensions of between five and 30 days. A fourth employee received a written warning.

The city caught the issues this year, he said. It was "incredibly early in the process, which is a good thing."

Kirkopoulos couldn't say how much money was missing, but that it was "relatively small."

The parks scandal is just the latest for a public works division wracked by high-profile issues in recent years.

In 2013, for example, an employee was fired after the city says he defrauded the city of more than $1 million from the Hamilton Farmers Market. Police still have not laid charges.

Also in 2013, the city conducted an investigation of nearly 50 roads workers over issues of time theft and breach of trust. An arbitrator ruled this year that a number of employees ultimately terminated be hired back.

Employees have also been fired for supposedly bringing a pot brownie to work that made another employee ill.

Finance staff discovered the inconsistency while going through "documentation" and noticing an "anomaly," Kirkopoulos said. He wouldn't elaborate further, citing the pending police investigation.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger pointed to this as evidence that the city is getting more adept at discovering issues.

"It's part and parcel of a proactive approach," he said. "If you go looking for issues that are inappropriate, invariably you're going to find them. This is an effort to try to prevent those things from happening and catch them if they do."

The city wouldn't name the employee who left over the purchasing issue. But it did confirm that parks superintendent Ramona Maharaj is no longer employed there.

Maharaj's LinkedIn profile says that she's been a city employee since 2005, when she started as a financial assistant. She rose through the ranks to superintendent, a job she held for two years and seven months.

Her duties, the profile reads, included developing budgets and ensuring performance standards.