WASHINGTON, D.C. – Fairfax County employees are driving hundreds of vehicles across the county — or are swapping cars with those who drive more — to run up the odometers, according to the Washington Post newspaper. They know that if they don’t use their cars, they could lose them. When the county established 4,500 miles as the annual minimum to determine whether a vehicle could be weeded from its fleet to save money, many employees and managers got creative, the report said. Their efforts are documented in hundreds of e-mails and memos obtained by the Washington Post under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. To eliminate unneeded cars, the county established a minimum annual mileage, 4,500, and told its 11,500 employees and supervisors that any cars with odometers that did not meet that figure would be taken away. Exceptions were provided for firefighters, police, and workers with sensitive missions transporting clients. But the driver of a car with low mileage would have to justify its place in the fleet. Last week, board members were surprised to learn that just 11 vehicles were turned in this year and demanded that the minimum annual mileage be pushed to 5,000.
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