He tells county Board of Supervisors that a civil grand jury report on public employees’ use of taxpayer-owned vehicles is misleading
Bob Cuddy - bcuddy@thetribunenews.com
Sheriff Pat Hedges faced a grilling this week on his department’s use of take-home cars, as supervisors told him and other department heads that taxpayers deserve better explanations about which public employees are taking these cars home at night, and why.
“I don’t know of any crime that would require 28 of your deputies … to respond at once” at night, said Supervisor Adam Hill, who led the supervisors’ quest for greater accountability.
Hill’s reference was to a civil grand jury report released two weeks ago that took the county to task for not adequately explaining why 132 county employees need to take home taxpayer-owned vehicles every night.
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Of those, 59 are in the Sheriff’s Department and 13 are in the District Attorney’s Office.
The public considers the numbers excessive, Hill told the sheriff.
Hedges replied that the grand jury report was vague and misleading and led to “false headlines in local newspapers.” In particular, he said, he did not know how the grand jury arrived at its $1 million annual estimated cost of take-home vehicles.
In its report, the grand jury did not explain where that number came from, and Chairman Brandt Kehoe did not respond to requests from The Tribune to explain his math.
The grand jury complained that when it asked for justification for take-home vehicles, department heads gave short answers such as “school resource officer” or “division commander” without explaining why these and other individuals could not do their jobs using personal cars.
The grand jury said the sheriff, undersheriff, seven school resource officers, several commanders, division commanders and a process server had take-home cars.
All 13 of the district attorney’s vehicles were under the general heading “on call 24 hours/undercover investigations.”
In a news release shortly after the grand jury report, District Attorney Gerald Shea said his office’s investigators use the take-home cars for after-hours follow-up “on many of the approximately 18,000 adult and juvenile criminal cases handled” each year.
Hedges sought to fill in some of the blanks for supervisors. He said some officers are undercover and need county cars. For others who live in remote areas, it is cheaper to have them take the car home than have them drive to San Luis Obispo, pick up a county car and then drive back to their outpost.
Others just need to represent the department in their respective communities at night, he said.
Hedges endured more of an interrogation than other department heads, but supervisors also asked some of his counterparts about their employees’ take-home vehicles.
Social Services Director Lee Collins and Health Agency Director Jeff Hamm were unable to provide a specific number of take-home cars in their departments, but both assured supervisors the practice is necessary.
“It’s very rare, very low cost,” Collins said, and involved “very few vehicles,” used by staff members dealing with children at risk of child abuse.
Hamm said his department used five cars for drug and alcohol abuse cases, “and some others.”
Despite the explanations, supervisors, who during budget hearings are cutting services as well as programs that help the poor and elderly, said they want a more thorough accounting.
Beyond the accountability, Hill said he would like to see a plan for reducing the number of cars that go home with county employees.
The district attorney, sheriff, county administrator and Board of Supervisors are required by law to respond to the grand jury report by Sept. 2. Hedges said he will have more details in that report.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/756186.html
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