Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994 TAG: 9406270100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The Washington Post reported today that state officials have documented abuse including a game warden using his government car to ferry relatives to work, a regional administrator taking his son on a 300-mile trip and another official taking a car home for 11 days without anyone noticing.
"There's a lot of stories about agency heads driving around town in their Crown Vics or whatever they could get," said Secretary of Administration Michael E. Thomas, who decided not to assign himself a Ford Crown Victoria when he took office in January. "We just don't see the justification for that. We need to set an example for how state resources will be used."
A report prepared for Allen found that the state owns 8,071 passenger vehicles, or one for every 10 full-time employees.
The executive order Allen plans to sign would force all agencies to transfer control of their passenger vehicles back to a statewide pool, where the commissioner of motor vehicles would determine reassignments, the newspaper reported. The order also would rewrite the rules governing the 1,188 employees who are allowed to take cars home and flatly ban such perks for Cabinet secretaries, agency directors and other high-ranking officials, according to the newspaper.
The number of cars the Allen administration will cut from the state fleet remains to be seen. Thomas said he trimmed his department's fleet by 20 percent, and Public Safety Secretary Jerry W. Kilgore already has eliminated 82 vehicles.
- Associated Press
by CNB