El Dorado County Grand Jury • 2008-2009

Part III - Released June 2008(pdf, 976kb)

Published: June 26, 2008 82 pages Consolidated Report
View Original PDF

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F5

Findings 8 findings

F1 Page 6
BOS Policy #D-4 is not being followed. Paragraph B.2 titled “Vehicle Use” requires the CAO’s Office to review permanent assignment and overnight retention of County-owned vehicles on an annual basis and to continue or rescind authorization. Interviews with the CAO’s office revealed that this has not been done for several years.
F2 Page 6
Paragraph B.2.a of the policy specifies that an employee who is responsible for responding to emergency situations related to public health or safety and protection of property on a 24-hour basis may be assigned a vehicle for on-call duty. However, paragraph B.2.b is subject to interpretation and allows any County employee that can demonstrate to the Board of Supervisors that it is in the best interest of the County for that employee to be assigned permanent and overnight retention of a County-owned vehicle.
F3 Page 6
The purchase of County vehicle fuel is a budget item within various County departments, and is not a component of the Fleet Management process. This is a significant County expense and estimated to be over 1.6 million dollars next year and represents nearly 40% of total fleet costs.
F4 Page 6
Fuel purchases for County vehicles are not centrally managed or controlled. The County’s primary fuel vendor possesses very sophisticated reporting capabilities and would be able to provide excellent tools in an effort to better manage fuel purchases. 2 5. The 50 vehicles identified as “Department 99” or department owned are not managed by Fleet Management, so the efficiency of operating those vehicles (which represent nearly 10% of the County total) is difficult to determine.
F6 Page 7
County fleet costs for 2008-2009 are estimated to be 4.2 million dollars, with projected total miles at over 5.4 million. These costs represent a cost to the County of 77.2 cents for every mile driven. As a point of reference, the rate the County reimburses employees to drive their own vehicles on County business is 50.5 cents per mile, or 26.7 cents per mile less than the County spends on its own vehicles. We do recognize that the County per mile cost is an average of ALL vehicles, including some heavy duty vehicles.
F7 Page 7
In reviewing the take-home vehicle list many of the assignments are not for “health and safety” or on-call status use. Take-home vehicles are driven 21% more miles per year, per vehicle when compared to the balance of the Fleet managed vehicles. One reason is that take-home vehicles include “commute” miles.
F8 Page 7
Potential cost savings to the County exist in two areas: a. The conversion of miles driven in County-owned vehicles to private vehicle reimbursement would save 26.7 cents per mile. If a 10% reduction were achieved, the County would save an estimated $145,278 annually. b. A 10% reduction of total County vehicle miles driven would yield a 77.2 cent per mile savings, estimated to be $419,862 annually.
F9 Page 7
Our investigation indicated that Fleet Management is performing their function well.

Recommendations 1

Conclusions 2

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office