Five former and current city workers have been charged with stealing nearly $30,000 in a phony overtime and mileage reimbursement scheme, but the 9-month investigation into theft by employees that produced the indictments announced Thursday is not finished, officials said.

Dennis Conforti, former chief timekeeper in the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, who was believed to be a target of the probe, was not among those charged.

Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine would say nothing about Conforti's status.

"It is an ongoing investigation," he said. "I can comment only on those things in the public record."

Sources said Devine's office would seek to make deals with those who have been charged to obtain information against others who may have participated in the alleged scam.

Charged with stealing the most in the indictments unsealed Thursday was Richard Esposito, 34, a $44,000-a-year truck driver in the Streets and Sanitation Department. He is charged with theft, forgery, official misconduct and money laundering after allegedly taking about $23,000 in checks for overtime he did not work and mileage reimbursements he was not due.

Some of Esposito's checks were turned over to his girlfriend, June Katzmarek, 38, a secretary in the city corporation counsel's office, who deposited them in their joint account, officials said.

Also charged were Adeline Partipilo, 64, a former Streets and Sanitation Department payroll auditor who allegedly took $3,000 in mileage reimbursements to which she was not entitled; Sandra Chiles, 32, a supervising timekeeper in the department accused of taking about $1,800 in phony mileage reimbursements; and Anne Heller, 34, a former assistant contract administrator in the department who allegedly took $2,200 in unearned mileage reimbursements.

Katzmarek was charged with theft and forgery; the other three women were charged with theft, forgery and official misconduct.

Esposito, Partipilo and Heller no longer work for the city. Katzmarek and Chiles are on paid administrative leave as the case against them proceeds.

The investigation began late last year when a colleague alerted a supervisor after seeing a travel reimbursement check for Conforti to which he allegedly was not entitled, according to City Hall sources. Mara Georges, the city's corporation counsel, said "a lax system" apparently allowed wrongdoing, but she added that strong safeguards have been put in place since it was detected.

Mayor Richard Daley attributed the scandal to "human nature, unfortunately."

But he was quick to point out that it was city officials who "got to the bottom of it" and turned information over to Devine's office.