Employee car program misconstrued

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 26, 2006 | by Rocky J. Fluhart

The proposed change to Salt Lake City's employee take-home car program has been badly misconstrued in the press. It is important for this issue to be clearly understood by those directly impacted and by Salt Lake City taxpayers.

The current ordinance allows certain employees to take home city- owned cars if they live no farther than 35 miles from the corporate city limits of Salt Lake City. Police officers are allowed, by ordinance, to use their cars on an unrestricted basis inside Salt Lake County. Employees have been assessed fees based on the distance they live from the city.

The administration is proposing a policy change (1) to cut the enormous cost of the take-home car program to the taxpayers of Salt Lake City, (2) to provide greater equity among city employees and (3) to encourage practices that will conserve fuel and cut down on pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal would change the distance an employee can live from the city and still take home a city-owned vehicle to 25 miles from the City-County Building. This limitation would be phased in over five years for those who currently live from 25 to 35 miles from the city. It would also prohibit personal use of the vehicle, except for secondary employment if the employer reimburses the city.

Today, 446 vehicles are taken home by city employees, 413 of them by police.

Representatives from the police and fire departments have been consulted about the proposed changes as the recommendations have been developed. Police take-home vehicles accumulate a total of 14,380 round-trip miles per day commuting to and from home.

Of the 413 police take-home cars, only 104 are driven by officers who live within the city limits. Total take-home car expense for all employees is $736,162 per year. Of that total, $295,181 is reimbursed to the city by the employees. The remaining $440,981 is covered by city taxpayers through the general fund.

The take-home program was started primarily because of the benefit to city taxpayers from having patrol cars on the road or parked at residences. That benefit is obvious for the 104 cars driven by officers who live in neighborhoods in the city. However, there is no benefit to city taxpayers, and the cost to the taxpayers is far less defensible, when the vehicles are driven outside city limits. One must ask if it is fair for city taxpayers to pay to have police cars commute daily to and from Grantsville, Wanship or Roy.

Some benefit is gained if public safety employees have a vehicle in which to respond quickly in emergency situations. Obviously, this benefit diminishes in direct proportion to the distance the employee must drive to respond. If it takes 45 minutes for an officer to drive from a faraway home, that cannot be credibly considered an "emergency response."

Mayor Rocky Anderson has made an extraordinary effort to conserve valuable resources and reduce pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions in every aspect of municipal operations. Major strides have been made in that regard, yet the current take-home car policy rewards those who drive the greatest distance, use the most fuel and pollute the most.

The city's policy on take-home cars should be consistent with the goal of minimizing our negative impacts on the environment and compensating employees in the most equitable manner. The current take-home car policy works in the reverse, actually providing a greater benefit for every additional mile traveled.

Rocky J. Fluhart is the chief administrative officer for Salt Lake City Corp.