A Lac La Biche County vehicle that made its way to a country music festival last year is one of the main drivers behind a new vehicle policy that councillors say will better monitor the municipal fleet.
The new policy relates to municipally-owned passenger vehicles, and is expected to be presented to council for approval at meeting later this month. While councillor await the new policy, at least one elected official wanted to ground all 127 vehicles in the municipal fleet until he understood why some staff were allowed to take County vehicles home overnight, and what punishments others staff were issued for abusing the current vehicle policy.
"I want accountability and I want to know which jobs really need them, and which staff we are just handing pickups to," said councillor Sterling Johnson, who has been spearheading a review of a vehicle policy since last August when he heard that a staff member had detoured on a return trip from a conference in Central Alberta, taking the assigned municipal vehicle to a country-music festival. "It's a free-for-all, it really is."
Johnson went further, targeting specific levels of municipal staff in a scenario he played out at a recent public meeting.
"Just because you are a foreman and say that you are going on road checks — but you never go on road checks — you get to take a pick-up home," he said, also adding anecdotal stories where road maintenance staff were taking vehicles home with them because they lived too far away from public works shops. Johnson said what he believes is taking place is "abusive" and "a slap in the face to the people of this county."
Lac La Biche County CAO Dan Small, the administrative boss who oversees all municipal staff, wasn't aware of the issues.
"That's 100-per cent news to me," he said, asking the councillor for more details about the accusations.
Small said about a dozen of the municipality's 127 vehicles are taken home by staff on a regular basis. He said vehicles are equipped with GPS tracking, and said there is a process for staff members to sign-out vehicles, and that process is monitored regularly by senior management and documented in monthly reports that council can view. The entire policy is reviewed annually.
Lac La Biche County's Manager of Equipment Services Les Cote said any abuse of the current vehicle usage system is "next to nothing — if at all."
Who takes what?
According to municipal information requested by Lakeland This Week, three supervisors in the municipality's Transportation department take vehicles home to allow for quick response to any road emergencies or issues. In winter months, two other vehicles are taken on a rotating basis by operators conducting early morning road inspections. The Utilities department sees three supervisors taking home County vehicles, again for quick responses to after-hour callouts. An additional vehicle is rotated between operators for weekday and weekend responses. One backup operator is also issued a vehicle on weekends only.
Three vehicles — one for the manager and two for peace officers — are taken home on weekday evenings in municipality's Enforcement Services department, and the manager and a coordinator in the Lac La Biche County Fire Services take vehicles home on weekdays and evenings.
In addition to specific department use, where most vehicles are equipped with unique equipment for emergency use, up to three vehicles are taken home by employees during the summer season on a part-time basis, again to allow for efficient operations that are to the business advantage of Lac La Biche County, notes Lac La Biche County spokesperson Jihad Moghrabi.
"Other than Enforcement Services and Fire Services, managers and Associate CAOs do not routinely take vehicles home or have one assigned to them," Moghrabi explained. "Most managers use personal vehicles to go to meetings or take care of day-to-day operations. Managers do not take vehicles home unless it’s to the business advantage of Lac La Biche County."
While most councillors discussing the policy said it would be good to upgrade the process and use it for a tool to better monitor vehicle use, Johnson continued to blame senior administration for overlooking the issue. He challenged Small to look over each vehicle request.
"Will you do that, or will you leave it to the managers?" Johnson asked.
Councillor Jason Stedman jumped in, saying the CAO's role is not to take over the duties of other staff ... or of council.
"We might as well have Dan counting paperclips," Stedman shot back. "It's been brought up, so now it's up to council to do our job and monitor it too."
Johnston continued to steer forward, and formally requested that all vehicles be grounded until a fortified policy could be approved. While his request was denied, additions and revisions to a vehicle-usage policy are expected to come back to council at their February 23 meeting. That review will include an audit of each fleet vehicle, detailing intended uses and who can sign it out.