Sunday, August 24, 2008

Take home vehicles - Public Works Dept (6/7)

Tim White

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Ford 350- Pick up truck to carry hand tools,tape measures, maps, foul weather gear, and flashlights?
Needed to come in 10 times?
Housed in Branford?
You have to be kidding me.
We allow this person to have a truck that he puts 12,000 miles a year on to and from his home?
How does this happen?
How do we stop it?

Anonymous said...

QUESTION:

How do we stop it?

ANSWER:

Dear Editor,

Did you know...? etc.

Sincerely,
name
address
phone number


letters@courant.com
letters@nhregister.com
letters@record-journal.com
news@cheshireherald.com
opinion@rep-am.com

A quick letter that addresses your concern should take about 10 - 20 minutes.

And remember to vote!

Anonymous said...

He came in 10 times?

At .58 a mile that's $6,960 a year or $690 for each emergency trip and if they really aren't emergencies the cost per trip could really be out of sight.

Thanks Tim for exposing the ridiculous costs the TM allows.

Living 25 miles away precludes an emergency respose time. He might as well take a bus.

I just can't imagine why he needs any vehicle, especially a 350 gas guzzeler that would shave a few minutes off a 35 minute trip.

Each person that gets a take home vehicle should write a letter explaining how many miles from town they live, how long it takes them to drive to Cheshire and substantiate the need. These letters should be published in the Cheshire Herald.

Anonymous said...

1:21 p.m. makes some good points. Missing is the additional cost of pay for driving time. Often mandatory call-ins can result in mandatory overtime payments too. Does anyone know what the town policy on this is?

Many organizations using mandatory call-in processes may also have a minimum amount of time paid for a call-in even if the emergency goes away while Mr. Lives-Far-Away receives a call on the truck radio telling him he can turn around and head home because the emergency no longer exists. Anyone needing to drive round trip from their home about 29 miles from here is going to need at least 45 minutes of straight time to make such a trip without stopping off at the call-in site or office. So maybe the $690/call-in vehicle expense needs a couple of hundred bucks added for stuff like overtime pay, benefits, and maybe even increased pension payout based on the way pension payments are calculated based somewhat on average annual pay.

Anonymous said...

1:21 I had been asking (around the edges) about this for years.

Each person that gets a take home vehicle should write a letter

I disagree. If something is offered to an ee, s/he will normally accept it.

IMO, what really matters now is that the nine Council members are aware of the take home vehicles (and related gasoline use) and the Council changes things or it does not. Either way... the information is now available to the public (though I'm surprised to have not yet seen any "press" about this... goodness... people are definitely talking about this).

The voters will consider this in November... some may cheer it as public safety, others may see it differently.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous. There is no question that there may be a need for a vehicle however the need is only 10 times per year. If you take the cost of the vehicle on an annual basis and divide it by the 10 times it was used, I think you would see this just does not make sense in fact it is outrageous! A total waste of tax payer money. The town really needs to look at the number of times this vehicle was used for the town vs. the number of times it was used just as a commute vehicle. To the common person it looks like someone has a "free ride". Must be nice! Too bad it is our money that is being spent! Also why is the person living so far away? Seems like there should be a total mileage radius when someone has such a position. In an emergency especially during a storm it would take a good deal of time to respond- oh ya it was only needed 10 times I guess this is not really an issue.