Better oversight urged for School District vehicles

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

The Clark County School District's fleet of employee vehicles -- including police cars, maintenance trucks and passenger vans -- will soon be under closer, in-house scrutiny.

In a report released in January, Legislative Counsel Bureau auditors recommended the district improve its oversight and controls of the so-called "white-car fleet." Suggestions included that district officials take a closer look at whether some vehicles aren't being driven enough to make the cost of upkeep worthwhile. Auditors also suggested the district establish a better method of tracking inventory and use within departments that have been assigned vehicles for group use.

District officials are putting the finishing touches on the job description for the new fleet manager position, said Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the district. The fleet manager will be responsible for oversight of the 1,840 vehicles used daily by district employees.

"We've known oversight of the white cars needed some shoring up but we were reluctant to incur the cost of adding staff," Rulffes said. "But with the independent analysis of the audit, it validates the need to have a separate position to perform these important tasks."

Prior to the legislative audit the district had already taken steps to rein in use of the district-owned vehicles. In the fall of 2003, more than two dozen administrators were required to trade in their company cars for a monthly mileage stipend.

Employees are also no longer allowed to use the vehicles to commute to and from work, said Kathy Foster, the district's business manager. There are exceptions, such as school police or facilities workers who are on 24-hour call to respond to emergencies, Foster said.

Even the district's speech therapists, who travel from school to school throughout the workday, now park their own cars at a relay site before retrieving their district vehicle, Foster said.

Since the audit, the district has begun studying monthly mileage reports more closely to determine where cars may, and may not, be needed, Rulffes said.

Two departments that have vehicles assigned, the community partnership office and the legal office, both report low monthly mileage, Rulffes said. After closer study, Rulffes said, he determined that the community partnership staff needed the district's older model sports utility vehicle to haul oversized displays and materials to public presentations.

"They may have low mileage but the vehicle is still needed to accomplish their duties," Rulffes said.

In the case of the district's legal office, Rulffes said, it appears that having two cars assigned for staff to make trips to the courthouse may not be necessary.

"We'll probably take one (car) away or both and switch to mileage reimbursements," Rulffes said.

Rulffes said complaints come in every two to three weeks from members of the public who have spotted a district-owned vehicle parked in their neighborhood, outside a shopping center or another location that doesn't appear to be connected to school-related activities.

"In the majority of these cases it turns out to be legitimate use of the vehicle," Rulffes said. "Occasionally there is inappropriate use and that's something we won't tolerate," Rulffes said.

The district's employee vehicle fleet will soon have a new addition: the $29,988 Ford Explorer XLT purchased in 2004 for Superintendent Carlos Garcia, who announced his resignation at a School Board meeting last week. Upon Garcia's departure in July the sports utility vehicle will be rotated into the fleet, allowing an older car to be dropped out or sold.

Rulffes declined to speculate on which employee might wind up driving the Ford Explorer, which includes a six-CD sound system, four-wheel drive and third-row seating. The purchase of the vehicle, which the School Board determined to have been appropriate under Garcia's contract, was criticized by some members of the public as unnecessarily lavish.

Carole Vilardo, president of Nevada Taypayers Association, said she was encouraged by the district's plans for better oversight of employee vehicles.

"The fact that the district is responding so quickly (to the auditors' findings) is good news," Vilardo said.

The next step, Vilardo said, will be for the district to carry out its plans.

"I'd like to hear in six months that the district has identified the vehicles that are more than what's needed to do the job," Vilardo said. "They should sell them off and replace them with more reasonable and cost-efficient vehicles."

The first car on the inspection list should be the superintendent's Ford Explorer, Vilardo said.

"It sounds like there were a few bells and whistles tucked in there," she said.