September 13, 2009 Saving Taxpayer Money: Use Current County Vehicles to Provide a Vehicle Pool for Work-Related Use but Not for Commuting To Work

At tomorrow's Hamblen County Finance Committee meeting, commissioners will conside the cost of purchasing three more county vehicles to be used as "pool" vehicles for county officials or employees who need to check out a car for work-related travel. The cost study was prepared by Sharee Long in the Hamblen County Mayor's Office.

The cost study report may be viewed by clicking on the document (above) entitled "Car Purchase and Costs Associated." [An earlier post today discusses unauthorized car allowances that have been provided by Hamblen County as well as Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey's "car allowance." Scroll down or click here to go to the car allowance post.]

The other document (above) shows the list of NINE take-home vehicles that Hamblen County already has and the value of each as a non-fringe benefit. Three take-home vehicles are driven by courthouse/justice center maintenance workers. One take-home vehicle is driven by an employee of the Garbage Department. One take-home vehicle is driven by the Hamblen County Road Superintendent. Three take-home vehicles are driven by employees of the Road Department.

And one take-home vehicle is driven by Frank Parker, the former Director of Cherokee Park who admitted to theft of money from an individual who was staying in a camper at the Park. Parker was "demoted" after the theft but was allowed to remain as a county employee. Parker, who had a county vehicle as Park Director, apparently still has a county vehicle despite his demotion, despite his currently being on probation for the theft after diversion was granted in mid-2008, and despite his apparent abuse of his position with excessive overtime.

Click here, here, here, and here for posts on Frank Parker's theft and public misconduct charges, his admission to lying to the TBI, and his abuse of overtime privileges. Despite Parker's actions, he is a good friend of Mayor David Purkey and thus he is still working for the county with a taxpayer-provided take-home vehicle.

No more taxpayer money needs to be used to buy more vehicles. There are already nine take-home vehicles. Pull these vehicles---or at least 5-6 of them---and make those vehicles Hamblen County "pool" vehicles to be used by the Road Department, maintenance department, and others on an as-needed basis.

With regard to Road Department vehicles, the county commission could at least ask that two of these vehicles be parked at the Road Department and used as Road Dept. "pool" vehicles for use on work assignments instead of being used for commuting to work, too.

With regard to the county maintenance vehicle, one of these could be put in a county maintenance "pool" to be used for work-related travel instead of being used for commuting to work, too.

With regard to Cherokee Park, that vehicle could be the Cherokee Park "pool" vehicle for work-related travel instead of being used for commuting to work, too.

The taxpayers have already paid for those nine vehicles, and the taxpayers already pay for gas and insurance on these vehicles. Taxpayers do not need to provide a vehicle, gas, and insurance for officials or employees to drive to and from their county job.

Government at all levels needs to wake up to the reality of the working world. Most working people have to drive their own car to and from work. Once they get to work, working people are usually paid mileage if they drive their own car on work-related assignments, or they are provided with a company vehicle to drive on work-related assignments during the workday. There are commissioners who will tell you that they had to drive their own vehicle to work.

With 4, 5, or 6 or even all 9 of the current take-home vehicles in some variation of a county vehicle "pool," officials or employees can check out a vehicle when they have a specific work-related need for a vehicle or they can charge mileage as the county policy provides IF one of the pool vehicles is not available.

They don't need to have a vehicle available to drive to and from work and available 24-hours a day. For the occasional emergency call before 8 am or after 5 pm, the official/employee can drive his own vehicle and collect mileage.

August 11, 2009 Taxpayers Will Have To Continue To Pay for Unauthorized Car Allowances

Hamblen County is not authorized to pay car allowances to county officials. But Hamblen County pays them anyway.

Hamblen County is not authorized to provide a car or vehicle for full-time use of salaried county officials. But Hamblen County provides vehicles anyway.

And yesterday, despite state law and an attorney general's opinion, the county commission took no action to stop the unauthorized payment of car allowances and/or the unauthorized provision of vehicles for the full-time use of salaried county officials.

Instead, Hamblen County Commissioners voted to continue using taxpayer dollars to make car allowance payments while they "study" the issue.

State law regarding cars and car allowances has been on the books for years. The attorney general's opinion on cars and car allowances was made public in April 2009. The county attorney gave his opinion on cars and car allowances in May 2009. But in June 2009, the county budget was passed----WITH UNAUTHORIZED CAR ALLOWANCE PAYMENTS.

In July 2009, I asked the commission to stop the unauthorized payments. They did not do so. They sent the issue back to the August Finance Committee.

Yesterday the Finance Committee met and did not resolve the issue. Unauthorized taxpayer dollars continue to be spent while commission "studies" the situation. How long does it take to stop unauthorized payments? How many taxpayer dollars will be wasted while a study is made?

Who gets car allowances? Well, according to the county attorney, only three people get a car allowance: Assessor of Property Keith Ely ($169.32/month); Marsha Hopkins, an employee in Ely's office ($224.36/month); and Planning Director Danny Young ($350.00/month).

In the opinion of the county attorney, County Mayor David Purkey's $600/month "car allowance" is not really a car allowance. Why? Because when the Mayor requested a "car allowance," the "car allowance" was paid as a salary increase. So, in the county attorney's opinion, if someone requests a "car allowance" and if you make the "car allowance"/car expenses payment as a salary increase, suddenly it is not a "car allowance" at all.

Of course, to accept this line of reasoning, you have to totally ignore all the documents that say the $600/month is a "car allowance." The county attorney would even ignore the budget amendment-- prepared in the Mayor's office--that says "budget amendment for salary adjustment for car allowance at $600 per month."

UPDATE: See Post for September 5, 2009, for county commission's August 20 vote to stop unauthorized "car allowances" in order to come into compliance with state law.

Yep, in today's world of government entitlement and perks, in Hamblen County it all depends on what the meaning of car allowance is. It's a crying shame that a man making $83,000/year who rarely shows up in his office is so greedy that he demands an extra $7,200 taxpayer dollars so he can buy a car for himself, increase his retirement take, and make over $90,000/year plus insurance and other benefits.

Why can't the Mayor drive himself to work---like most workers do---and then check out a county car if he has county business to attend to? Or why can't he drive himself to work and then charge the county for mileage---like many county employees do---when he uses his own car for county business? Or, instead of giving the Mayor a $600/month car allowance, why doesn't the county use that $600/month ($7,200/year) to buy the county another car that can be checked out by the Mayor or others as needed?

And through it all Stancil Ford, the protector, runs interference for the County Mayor. Stancil and many other commissioners just don't understand what the average person in Hamblen County faces every day. The commission blithely gives $7,200/year of taxpayer dollars as a car allowance to a County Mayor who is already making $83,000/year so he can top off at $90,000/year and boost his already cushy state retirement.

There is never a thought to the fact that part of the Mayor's car allowance and salary comes from the widow living on a fixed income of $550/month ($6,600/year) in social security benefits, from the recently laid-off worker, from the individual who has no health insurance, and from the family that scrimps and saves to get by while the government throws more money and more perks at the richest government officials and employees.

In October 2006, only one person on the commission opposed giving the Mayor an extra $7,200/year. That person was Ricky Bruce. Ricky and I have disagreed and still disagree on many spending issues, but this is one where Ricky clearly got it right.

When the county commission said "no" to raises for county employees this year, they said "yes" once again to giving the Mayor $7,200 for a car allowance. IF that money is to be spent at all, take away the car allowance and buy the county a car instead of giving the Mayor money to buy himself a car at taxpayer expense.

Oh, and the county attorney added that the Mayor and others who get a car allowance don't even have to drive their own car on county business. They can take the car allowance and do what they want with it and then check out a county car and drive it on official business. That's one heck of a deal. The Mayor gets a car allowance salary increase but he can still use county cars or have others--like Eric Carpenter in his big new county Ford Expedition--drive him to Nashville and other destinations unknown.

September 22, 2005 Update on county vehicle reports

I received the vehicle report from the Work Release Director yesterday. Don Baird said he had tried to send it before, but there was a problem with the county e-mail system. He finally just sent it from his personal e-mail.

That leaves only two departments that haven't responded in writing or by e-mail to the Sept. 13 request for mileage/condition info. The departments that are left are the Maintenance Dept. and the Sheriff's Dept.

I'm hoping that these two departments will provide a written or e-mail list soon since they are the only two still hanging out there.

Tomorrow, I'll give a full report on today's County Commission meeting. It was long. But it was one of the best meetings that we have had. There was a lot of good, thoughtful discussion on important issues. Commissioners were willing to listen to one another, to send problem areas back to committee, and in general work together well.

We decided to send a contentious rezoning issue back to the Planning Commission.

We voted to approve a 3-year contract with the Comptroller's Office (County Audit) to continue performing the county's audit in 2006-2008.

If state law doesn't change the amount charged, we will continue saving $18,000/year by having county audit perform our audit. That was my central campaign plank and we've already saved $54,000 in the past 3 years (2003-2005) by having state auditors instead of local private auditors perform the county audit.

As important as the savings, I think all commissioners now realize that state auditors specialize in this work and that, as a result, we are getting a far better audit (along with the savings) by having the state auditors handle this. They do an outstanding job, and they have helped the county come into compliance with state law and adopt procedures that provide for better record-keeping and greater accountability.

I'll have more on audits later--they are very important but they have certain limitations as well. Audits are like a spot check. The auditors do not (and are not expected to) check every payment, every deposit, every grant, every insurance enrollment, every gasoline purchase, every bid and contract, every time sheet, every payroll check, or the accuracy of inventory reports.

September 2, 2005 Waiting for the other shoe to drop

What's ahead on the accountability front?

Hamblen County's deficit budget that I spoke out against and voted against on August 4 is going to come back to haunt us sooner than we think.

The Planning Commission will probably come back at some point and ask for more money. (Commissioners Herbert Harville and Joe Spoone serve on the Planning Commission)

Gas prices: It may be time to look at the county's vehicle use policy and possibly eliminate take-home privileges for some vehicles. Departments hopefully are already eliminating anything other than absolutely necessary travel. Families are certainly being forced to cut back and eliminate unnecessary travel and trips. Let's make sure the government does the same.

County Inventory: The county's fiscal year ended June 30, 2005. The Finance Director indicated that she would have the county inventory ready by September 1. This is a multi-page document that lists each department and then the county vehicles, tractors, computers, desks, chairs, and other county-owned equipment assigned to that department.

I asked some questions after reviewing the 2004 vehicle inventory. In 2004, the inventory did not show a vehicle assigned to the Juvenile Court Department even though the county budget in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 had appropriated money to the Juvenile Court for the lease-purchase of a vehicle. (The car purchase had been placed in the line-item for "office equipment" but that is another audit story for another day.) I checked with Juvenile Court and they do have a Ford Taurus for transport. Maybe the Juvenile vehicle is listed in another department's inventory like the County Mayor's car is or maybe it was left off the county's inventory entirely.

In another strange twist, the car that County Mayor David Purkey drives is apparently listed in Sheriff Otto Purkey's inventory. Since there is nothing in Mayor Purkey's budget for gas, insurance, and maintenance of a vehicle, I guess the gas, insurance, and maintenance for the Mayor's vehicle also comes out of Sheriff Purkey's budget.

There may even be a car or cars (that are not undercover vehicles) that are not listed in any department's inventory.

The state auditors require that the county maintain an inventory as part of the audit process, but the state auditors don't go through our inventory and check that every vehicle, desk, and computer is listed. The accuracy of the list itself is the county's responsibility. This is another example where local officials have to be paying attention and asking questions in order to provide the accountability that the citizens deserve and that the officials, in our system of checks and balances, are elected to provide.

The inventory problem ties in with other recent questions about the 2004 audit. In the 2004 audit, the state auditors reported that the County Mayor switched money (over $360,000) from fund to fund without coming to county commission for approval and without even informing commission of his action. The explanation that County Mayor David Purkey provided to the auditors was that after consulting with Trustee Bill Brittain and Finance Director Nicole Epps, he (Mayor Purkey) ordered the shifting of money (over $360,000) to correct errors in past years and to "restore" those funds to their proper amounts.

The obvious questions that local officials should ask are exactly what errors happened in the past? Was revenue put in the wrong funds or were expenditures paid out of the wrong funds or both? Were these truly mistakes? If so, how did these errors happen-- by Mayor Purkey's own admission -- for years without detection? Were these employee errors or a problem with our accounting system or both? What has been done to make sure that this isn't still happening and that it won't happen again in the future?

Aren't those the questions that you would ask if it were $360,000 of your own money? What happened? How did it happen? If it happened for "years," exactly what has been done to keep this from happening again? It reminds one of the famous Watergate question posed by Sen. Howard Baker: "What did you know and when did you know it?"