OCEAN CITY, MD – In lieu of cutting expenditures, town officials many review Ocean City employees take home vehicle policy, according to www.mdcoastdispatch.com
City Manager Dennis Dare hinted that a “vehicle study” will be conducted that may alter the current usage of take home vehicles used by some of the town’s employees, but was reluctant to talk about specific numbers in the report before meeting with the Mayor and City Council.
Council President Joe Mitrecic said that the matter should addressed at an upcoming council’s agenda.
“We need to evaluate which vehicles are an absolute necessity and which are just perks,” said Mitrecic. “If it’s found to be a perk, then they may have to go away.”
In a spreadsheet report in October of 2007, there were 68 take home vehicles issued to town employees at that time, of which 29 were issued to the police department alone.
Dare said that he has “cut a few of the vehicles since that time” but did not concede the exact number, nor the annual cost expenditures for fuel and maintenance on the town’s fleet of vehicles.
He said the exact cost will be released in the vehicle study, and whatever that cost ends up being, Mitrecic said that any tweak to the current usage of take home vehicles that saves the town money is worth looking into.
Also listed on the spreadsheet was the number of miles that each employee travels to and from work with the aforementioned town owned vehicles. The town’s policy states that the vehicles should only be used for professional usage and not for personal use.
Distances traveled to and from work range anywhere from one mile to 34 miles, according to the list, and 36 of the top 100 salaried employees have a take home vehicle.
Councilwoman Mary Knight thought that putting a 10-mile radius for town vehicles could be an option or hoped that if some employees conceded their vehicles, they might see other perks as the economic picture improves.
“Maybe if they gave up their vehicles this year, we could save enough money to put back in place a step increase next year,” said Knight.
Though any type of radius system might be extremely difficult to enforce, the fact that the town’s officials are looking at cutting the usage of their own take home vehicles certainly shows that they are looking at all items on the expenditure list.
Councilwoman Margaret Pillas thought maybe the easiest solution would be to leave the vehicles in Ocean City and use them only during work hours only.
“Everyone knows that equipment won’t be used until they get to town, and take vehicles are viewed by many people to be a perk,” said Pillas, “but, as long as we are in a downturn in the economy, the perks should go away.”
The study to be released to the council in the coming weeks should show not only how much money is spent annually on the town’s vehicle fleet on both fuel and maintenance, but also how much of that cost is accrued for the distances traveled to and from Ocean City.
