Erie County Sheriff John Garcia faced questions from county legislators about his employees’ use of county-owned take-home cars, agreeing at points and labeling questions as “political attacks” at other points.
• It expands reporting requirements for all departments, stating that every department must submit a report to the Legislature by June 30, detailing vehicle requests, assignments, mileage and incidents. Certain requirements, like barring employees from receiving unmarked vehicles and take-home vehicles except for those in “an emergency or on-call role,” and prohibiting use of county vehicles for “personal errands, private activities, or any non-county purpose” were also in the old policy, but St. Jean Tard said she hopes stricter reporting standards will help with enforcement.
• It requires all county vehicles used by the administration to be outfitted with locator devices that track every vehicle. This applies to all departments that fall under the County Executive’s Office. However, an exception is carved out for independently elected officials, who do not need to comply with the vehicle-tracking requirement.
• It strengthens the authority of the Bureau of Fleet Services, a division of the county’s Department of Public Works, and also assigns more responsibilities and accountability to individual departments.
• It forbids employees from filling up their personal gas tanks or electronically charging personal electric cars at county fueling stations and county buildings.
This new draft is expected to be only one part of a two-part policy that would receive Legislature consideration. Legislator Jeanne Vinal, D-Amherst, who chaired the Fleet Policy Subcommittee, said she is working on separate language to ensure that the county budget is more transparent so that it’s possible to determine how many vehicles are in each department and what the cost to the county is.
The county budget is structured so that not even the Comptroller’s Office has managed to compare vehicle cost patterns over time, though the fleet costs the county at least $10 million a year.