Planning Committee approves new vehicle policy
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
BENTONVILLE - The Benton County Long-Range Planning Committee met Tuesday night to approve the adoption of a county vehicle policy.
The policy will be placed into effect to ensure that county vehicles being driven by county employees are used for county business only.
"The main thing we are concerned about and one of the things we want to eliminate is the chance that an employee be given the use of a vehicle as a perk," Justice of the Peace Kurt Moore said.
"You always have 10 percent of any group that is going to misuse things. The best way to stop that is to make it punitive," Justice of the Peace David Hill said, suggesting that when employees misuse a county vehicle, they be made to repay the county for gas.
"This policy is very clear, and it does what we wanted to do in that it makes sure people cannot use the cars for personal use," Justice of the Peace Beverly Williams said.
The county currently has 12 or 13 cars that go home with employees at night. The employees - which include members of the Department of Emergency Management, the fire marshal and county road supervisors - who take the vehicles home do so in the event that there is an emergency that needs to be responded to.
The county's elected officials are also assigned vehicles that they may take home with them. The new county vehicle policy does not govern the use of county vehicles by elected officials.
With the new county vehicle policy, the county will be allowed to check driving records for anyone who uses the vehicles, said Barbara Ludwig, human resources manager for the county.
The policy approved by the Long-Range Planning Committee on Tuesday night is the first county vehicle policy for Benton County.
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