Since 2011 City Administrator Steve Powers Has Cut Spending On Automobile Allowances
While spending increases on meals out, travel, luxury lodging and cell phones, monthly car allowance costs drop significantly from a high in 2010.
UNDER FORMER CITY administrator Roger Fraser in 2009 and 2010, according to information from city officials released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, taxpayers shelled out $158,564 in car allowance money to city staffers.
In 2012 and 2013, under City Administrator Steve Powers, Ann Arbor taxpayers paid $125,087 in car allowance money. Annual car allowance payments to city staff have dropped from a high of $88,207.56 in 2010 to $45,300 in 2013.
In 2009, 27 city employees were given car allowances totaling $70,357.56. By 2011, when Powers was hired, the number of city employees with car allowances had ballooned to include 36 staffers and the allowances paid out that year totaled $88,207.56.
One of those staffers with a car allowance was City Attorney Stephen Postema, an Ann Arbor resident who can frequently be seen walking to City Hall from his home on the West Side. Records show Postema wasn’t the only desk jockey collecting a car allowance.
The city’s new auditor dinged Postema in June 2012 for allegedly double-dipping. He’d requested $1,038 for mileage reimbursement while also collecting a $330 monthly car allowance. In the end, the city’s CFO Tom Crawford argued that the City Attorney had a contract which allowed him to collect a monthly auto allowance as well as mileage reimbursements. Furthermore, the CFO told Council members that there was no city policy in place that explicitly forbade employees from double-dipping.
Emails released by the city showed that together with CFO Tom Crawford, Postema pressed the city’s new auditor by phone and by email to reclassify the City Attorney’s alleged double-dipping transgression as something other than a “violation” based on the fact that Postema’s “executive” contract allowed for travel and thus his mileage was claimed as an allowed expense.
The auditor, in issuing the revised opinion, make a point to reaffirm that “… from a business practices standpoint, our conclusion (with or without the existence of a policy) was it would be illogical and, therefore inappropriate, to make mileage reimbursements to persons having a car allowance.”
Then, by means of a November 8, 2012 resolution offered up by the City Council’s Administrative Committee (John Hieftje, Ward 4 Council members Margie Teall and Marcia Higgins, Ward 2 Council member Tony Derezinski, and Ward 3 Council member Chris Taylor) Stephen Postema’s contract was quietly amended. This was done without mention of the auditor’s findings, and the resolution brought to Council stated the City Attorney was “willingly giving up” his monthly car allowance.
In early 2013, City Administrator Steve Powers quietly reduced the number of city staffers to whom car allowances were given. Not only did Powers eliminate his own auto allowance, he eliminated the auto allowances of CFO Tom Crawford and Police Chief John Seto. Seto, however, has daily use of a city-owned vehicle which he is free to drive to and from work. Expenses for the car, including gas, insurance and repairs are paid for by taxpayers.
From a high of 33 city employees receiving car allowances when Powers took over, he cut back the number of auto allowances to 19 in February 2013. As of the end of 2013, according to records from the city, the following 15 staffers received monthly car allowances:
Colin Smith, parks and recreation manager — $200
Jeff Straw, parks and recreation deputy manager — $200
Ralph Welton, chief development officer — $150
Annette Weber, city assessor’s office — $200
Michael Courtney, city assessor’s office — $200
David Petrak, city assessor’s office — $200
Amy Balogh, city assessor’s office — $200
Ryan Doletzky, city assessor’s office — $200
Patricia Forner, city assessor’s office — $200
Matt Warba, acting field operations manager — $300
Dennis Crum, fleet and facilities supervisor — $300
Matt Kulhanek, fleet and facilities manager — $300
Ellen Taylor, assistant fire chief — $375
Greg Bazick, deputy police chief — $375
James Baird, AAPD lieutenant — $375
Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Susan Pollay’s $315.63 monthly car allowance was discontinued, and police lieutenant James Baird’s car allowance was added. As of January 2014, the total amount spent by taxpayers monthly on auto allowances for the sixteen city staffers was $3,775.
While city employee car allowances is a hot-button issue, another is the use of city-owned vehicles by city staffers to commute between home and work. There has been grumbling about Ann Arbor city employees who commute to and from their city jobs in city-owned cars. The Ann Arbor Independent filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the total number of so-called “take-home” vehicles owned by the City of Ann Arbor, the names of city employees who have access to those take-home vehicles and a copy of the city’s policy concerning the use of take-home vehicles. Records revealed that Ann Arbor provides access to take-home vehicles to 18 city employees, as well an undisclosed number of unmarked police cars that are used a take-home vehicles.
As take-home vehicle programs for police are under increasing scrutiny by city governments because of fuel and vehicle costs that can run well over $1.5 million for a 110 per department, The Ann Arbor Independent is pursuing the release of the AAPD’s take-home vehicle program information, including miles driven outside the city limits and fuel costs.
Ann Arbor’s take-home vehicle program for non-police employees is modest in comparison to other city’s programs. Grand Rapids, Michigan cut 23 of the 106 take-vehicles assigned to city employees on a 24-hour basis.
In 2010, the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee implemented a take-home car fee of 20 cents per mile for driving to and from work for those city staff who live in the city. Those who live outside the city are charged 30 cents a mile. Prior to making the change, Chattanooga’s take-home fleet cost taxpayers $580,000 a year. Likewise, in 2012, the City of Indianapolis, Indiana imposed a $64 per month fee on every police officer and firefighter with a take-home vehicle.
In Toledo, Ohio, taxpayers pay the fuel bill for the daily commutes of at least 89 city employees.
According to documents released in response to a recent Freedom of Information Act request, the City of Ann Arbor owns over 300 vehicles worth between $7.5 and $12 million. The city employees 650 full-time staffers.