Last week in this space it was revealed that currently the Peachtree City Police Department maintains 94 vehicles. (It has since been learned that 59 of the 94 are used as transportation for officers to get themselves to and from home!)
The Police Department maintains more vehicles than there are personnel in the department. But, that’s only half the story.
The other half of the story is that Peachtree City taxpayers support an additional 94 city maintained vehicles. A total of 188. One for every 183 residents!
The 94 additional non-police vehicles are spread out over a wide range of city departments. Discounting EMS, the Fire Department and Public Works, many city administrative departments enjoy the use of taxpayer supplied transportation.
Included are the Building Department, Code Enforcement, Engineering, IT, KPTCB, Planning and Recreation as well as one City Hall “pool vehicle.” (The Recreation Department alone operates 20 cars and trucks.)
Vehicle types range from Ford Ranger and F-150 pickup trucks to the ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria.
There is confidence here, given current economic conditions, that the city manager and City Council will review the need for any city maintained vehicle and require department heads to justify in detail future vehicle requirements with an eye towards eliminating as many as possible.
Also, city officials should specifically review the list of 94 vehicles currently on the books assigned to non-Fire, EMS and Public Works departments with the goal of eliminating immediately those that are deemed non-essential.
For the life of me I can’t figure out why the Peachtree City IT Department needs two vehicles, a Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle and a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Isn’t everything the IT Department does electronic?
Further, a policy should be adopted by the city that encourages a culture where all administrative departments borrow vehicles from other departments when needed, rent them when needed or have the city pay personal mileage to city employees who use personal vehicles on city business. This is what most businesses do; why can’t Peachtree City?
In these difficult economic times, as the City Council and city manager struggle to find ways to reduce expenses in the 2012 budget and beyond, why not start with the obvious?
Peachtree City operates and maintains too many vehicles.
Jeff Christian
Peachtree City, Ga.
