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Drive-Home Cars Cost County

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 4, 2008

TAMPA - More than two dozen Hillsborough County employees have county cars that they drive to and from work, with gas and maintenance paid by taxpayers.
County administrators say the practice saves money compared with reimbursing employees for gas if they used their personal vehicles to attend after-hours events.

But a review by The Tampa Tribune shows that the county paid more for gas and to maintain their vehicles than it would have cost to pay the county reimbursement rate of 37.5 cents a mile.

And that doesn't include the purchase price of the vehicles, which can run from $13,000 to $50,000, depending on whether they carry special equipment.

Surrounding counties, facing the same shrinking tax revenue and soaring gas prices, have either reduced the number of county employees who get drive-home cars or are planning to reduce the number. In Pasco County, about 10 supervisors drive county cars home, but that number is expected to be cut this year, said Mike Nurrenbrock, the county's director of management and budget.

"In January, at our budget kickoff meeting, we told everybody we have to address take-home vehicles," Nurrenbrock said. "Several departments since then have eliminated them immediately or are going to phase it out between now and Oct. 1," the start of the new budget year.

Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean said some of the take-home vehicles may be justified. But Bean said she will reconsider the practice now that the county is looking for $87 million in budget cuts to satisfy the tax-slashing Amendment 1 passed by voters Jan. 29.

"I don't know where exactly we will end up," Bean said, "but I do tell you we're going to look at every single benefit we have over here this year."

How It Works

In all, 26 Hillsborough County employees, ranging from animal control officers to department heads, have been issued take-home cars. That's nearly triple the number in Pinellas County, where only nine county employees get a county vehicle.

Only employees who can be called out at night or weekends are allowed to drive their cars home, Bean said. County department heads submit requests for take-home cars to county administrators, who make the final approval. The approvals are forwarded to the Fleet Management Department, which tracks the vehicles' mileage.

The cars are owned by the county and insured under the county's self-insurance program. The employees fill up the vehicles at county facilities with gas pumps. The vehicles are replaced after seven years' use.

County regulations prohibit employees from using the cars for personal business, but it is impossible to know whether they abide by the restrictions. The county tracks total mileage on the vehicles but does not require mileage forms or other forms of documentation that shows how those miles are being used.

For some employees, the bulk of the mileage they put on county cars comes from their drives between home and work. For the three department heads with a county car, a review by the Tribune shows that the county could have saved money by reimbursing them for work mileage on their personal cars.

For instance, Dexter Barge, Hillsborough's top code enforcement officer, put 6,484 miles on his county-owned Chevrolet Impala during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. An estimated 4,200 of those miles came from the commute to and from his Valrico home.

If the county had reimbursed Barge for the remaining 2,200 miles at 37.5 cents a mile, it would have cost taxpayers $850, assuming all the miles were work-related. Instead, the county spent $1,296 for fuel and maintenance on Barge's car during the fiscal year, according to county records.

Barge said he was given the car because he sometimes is called out at night by the sheriff's office or fire and rescue department to declare a building uninhabitable after an arrest or fire.

"While it's not every night or every other night, it may be a couple of times a month," Barge said.

Costing Taxpayers More

Until two weeks ago, county Fire Chief Bill Nesmith drove a county-owned 2007 Ford Crown Victoria back and forth to work from his Indian Rocks Beach home, a distance of about 30 miles.

Last year, Nesmith put 15,221 miles on the vehicle. An estimated 13,680 of those miles were commuting to and from work.

If the county had reimbursed the chief just for his noncommuting miles, it would have cost taxpayers $577.87, compared with the $1,665 the county spent that year to maintain and fuel the vehicle.

As of April 19, Nesmith started parking the county car at a fire station in Town 'N Country, and using his personal car for his daily commute home.

Mark Thornton, the county's parks and recreation director, put 13,391 miles on two county cars in fiscal 2007. About 9,870 of the miles were driven from Thornton's Valrico home to the parks and recreation office in Sulphur Springs.

If Thornton had been reimbursed for the remaining 3,521 miles on his personal vehicle, it would have cost taxpayers $1,320, compared with the total $2,116 the county spent on gas and maintenance on the two vehicles.

Thornton said he may use his county car outside normal work hours a couple of times a week - for example, to attend Little League events at a county park.

"I don't get called out on emergencies that often," he said, "but I do use it outside of normal work hours for some things that are scheduled on weekends."

Other Rationale

County officials say giving employees take-home cars often makes sense for reasons other than saving money.

For instance, though Nesmith may not respond to many fires, it is customary for top-ranking police and fire officials to drive official cars, said Bean, the county administrator.

"I would guess every fire chief around is provided a car just because I think it's one of those things that even if you knew he's not going to be called out to every fire, they are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Bean said.

Deputy County Administrator Wally Hill said county employees who respond to emergencies need marked cars to speed their access into crime or disaster scenes.

"You want him appearing in a marked vehicle so people know he's authorized to be there," Hill said. "If they show up in their personal vehicles, there'll be a lot of questions about what he's doing there."

That rationale doesn't resonate with grass-roots watchdog groups who scrutinize county budget priorities.

"In the times we're in ... how can we allow this, to have officials get free transportation to and from their jobs?" said George Niemann, a director of the United Citizens Action Network, a Hillsborough-based organization.

Pinellas County, which has roughly the same population as Hillsborough, lets only nine employees take county cars home. That's a reduction from 11 take-home cars last year.

Four of the employees who drive county cars to work are in emergency management services, which includes fire; two are in 911 emergency communications; one, in emergency management, which includes natural disaster response; and two who work in operations at St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, which is owned by the county.

"On an annual basis we take a hard look at the justification of assigning take-home vehicles," said Mark Woodard, Pinellas director of Management and Budget. "But certainly in tight budget times you take an even harder look at those questions."

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com

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