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Samantha Hayes ReportingSalt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson says the vehicles city employees take home cost tax payers too much money. His proposal for change would mostly affect police officers.
The city council talked about the issue for over two hours tonight in a work session. Public safety and officers’ response times are a very big issue, important to everybody. Tonight the city council focused on three issues they would like to consider to save money: officers commuting to work in city vehicles, the personal use of those vehicles, and driving those vehicles to secondary jobs.
Mayor Rocky Anderson was not there tonight, but he sent the city council his proposal. He wants to limit use of vehicles for employees who live more than 25 miles from the city. He wants to prohibit personal use of those vehicles. And if employees are using those vehicles to drive to another job, Anderson wants to see the city reimbursed.
City records show that 446 employees currently take home vehicles, 413 of those are police officers, and 104 of those live within the city.
The total cost per year to the city is more than $736,000. Employees who live outside city limits do reimburse the city, more than $295,000 per year. The rest is paid by tax payers out of the general fund, to a tune of $440,981 per year.
The police chief says his officers are very concerned about this issue and it’s affecting recruiting. He believes if this proposal is adopted, it could negatively affect the city.
Chief Chris Burbank, Salt Lake City Police: “We’re able to call these officers out and they respond to a specific location without any intervention by the police department, or any trading of vehicles, or parking. All those things become huge issues in the event of a natural disaster.”
The council discussed average mileage on patrol cars, the skyrocketing cost of fuel, insurance, upkeep and longevity of vehicles. They’re going to continue this discussion at another work session on Tuesday. A vote on this is not expected until mid-June
