Former politician questions employee use of city vehicles
By Elizabeth Billips lizbillips@yahoo.com

A former state representative says City of Waynesboro employees are misusing their takehome vehicles.

At Monday's city council meeting, resident Alberta Anderson took issue with the city's vehicle use policy and cited an abuse she recently witnessed.

"I witnessed a city employee drop a female child off at Augusta Technical College's cosmetology class at 10 a.m. …. on city time," she said, referring to those with take-home vehicles as "privileged employees."

City Administrator Jerry Coalson conceded that the incident was unauthorized and that disciplinary actions had already been taken.

He said take-home vehicles are currently issued to 27 of the city's 71 employees, all of whom are department heads or on-call workers.

While city policy does permit these employees to drop off spouses or children on the way to and from work, they are not allowed to transport family members at any other time.

Anderson read off a list of questions about vehicle use, ranging from insurance liability to maintenance costs per vehicle to monthly fuel consumption for the past six months.

"I'm directing these questions to council members, but I figured council members wouldn't know," she said, becoming more visibly agitated each time Coalson provided an answer.

"These are great questions, but to be fair to council members, please give us an opportunity to look into them," councilman Herman Brown said while a large crowd of visitors representing the Family Y looked on.

"You will ... you will," Anderson responded before continu- ing down her list of 16 questions and demanding that each councilman respond to her on city letterhead no later than Friday.

Anderson and longtime councilman Bill Tinley also had a brief exchange of words after she accused city council of not doing its job running the city.

"I've been here a long time, and you're right, I'm not running the city … that's what we hired a city administrator for," Tinley said, noting city council was not in charge of day-to-day operations.

Later in the meeting, councilman Curtis Bell said he hoped everyone would follow up on Anderson's inquiries.

"I'm a little concerned the mayor and council couldn't answer the questions she asked," he said, urging fellow officials to familiarize themselves with the city's policies and procedures. "I've also seen vehicles in places I feel they shouldn't have been, especially on the weekends."

Mayor George DeLoach encouraged Anderson to attend upcoming human resources and personnel meetings where the issue would be revisited.

PERSONAL USE OF CITY VEHICLES (ADOPTED 2006)

Authorized drivers may transport family members in city vehicles, at their own risk, within the Waynesboro city limits while coming to and going home from work … Other minimal personal use exceptions for lunch or running errands on the way to and from work are acceptable with prior approval by the department head. Drivers must remember that these vehicles are highly visible and that they should never be used in a manner that would discredit the city or the mayor and city council.