A Petersburg official who played a key role in the city’s water meter snafu has been placed on administrative leave, the Free Press has learned.

Gajuan Clarke, who is listed as interim director of public utilities, was quietly put on leave before Thanksgiving, sources have said.

Acting City Manager Tom Tyrell and other officials are keeping mum about Mr. Clarke’s status, calling it a personnel matter.

However, staff at the Petersburg public utilities office confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Clarke is not coming into the office and could offer no information on when he might return. One person said he would be out for months.

When asked to take a message, the staff member responded that Mr. Clarke has not been calling into the office for messages and had not provided any contact information.

Mr. Clarke, the fiancé of former interim City Manager Dironna Moore Belton, who now heads the Petersburg Area Transit Co., could not be reached for comment.

In October 2015, Mr. Clarke cleared the way for Petersburg to accept the new digital water meters that electronics producer Johnson Controls Inc. provided, according to Brian Telfair, former Petersburg city attorney.

The company signed a contract in 2014 to replace the city’s 11,500 aging meters with modern equipment that would be more accurate and that would enable the city to repay the cost from savings the new meters were to generate.

Although the initial contract called for Johnson Controls to be paid $3.9 million, the city ended up paying the company $5.8 million, according to Mr. Telfair.

Mr. Telfair said Mr. Clarke’s recommendation enabled Tangela Innis, the city’s purchasing agent, to close out the contract with Johnson Controls, despite widespread complaints from residents about false readings, lack of bills and other problems.

During a subsequent investigation that he launched, Mr. Telfair said it was learned that Mr. Clarke never had the system tested before recommending acceptance.

In addition, Mr. Telfair discovered that some meters had not been installed or had been installed incorrectly.

The problem was confirmed last week when Mr. Tyrell said that an estimated 1,100 meters were never replaced and require one or more people from the water staff to go to the properties to collect information on water usage.

The system was supposed to allow Petersburg to use a specially equipped truck to ride by homes, businesses and stores and collect data on water usage transmitted by antennas on the meters. The data then was to be sent to a computer that was supposed to bill based on the readings.

Mr. Telfair, whose investigation was terminated after he resigned and Ms. Moore was hired to replace fired City Manager William Johnson III, said he was disappointed that the city failed to follow through.

He said that the warranty on the system expired in July, leaving the city on the hook for any problems that now occur with the system.