A tense conversation between Walton City Council and the public works department resulted in the tabling of an ordinance to eliminate employees’ ability to take home utility vehicles.
At its Tuesday meeting, city council presented the second reading of an ordinance amending city code and the employee handbook to “terminate the city vehicle home fleet regulations.” According to City Attorney Michael Duncan, the amendment will require public works employees—who are currently given utility vehicles to take to and from their homes at the start and end of every shift—to instead store their vehicles in the city garage.
“This will require city vehicles to be returned to the city garage at the end of every shift and then driven out for the work shift on the next day,” Duncan said.
While it was not brought up during the meeting, this discussion comes on the heels of former Mayor Gabe Brown’s resignation after he was accused of misconduct regarding the use of city vehicles.
While the incidences of Brown allegedly using city vehicles for personal use took place over the span of a year, two specific circumstances were cited at a meeting in March of last year: one in which Brown is accused of taking a city plow outside Walton’s limits, clearing a privately owned business’s parking lot and receiving payment for the act; and another in which he allegedly took a city owned vehicle to Bowling Green, not returning it to the city when he arrived back in Walton.
The motion at Tuesday’s meeting was tabled after a motion by councilmember Matt Brown to pursue further research and discussion.
Currently, public works employees are given utility vehicles upon the start of employment to travel to and from work and to respond to emergencies when on call, including removing snow from the roads and responding quickly to water main breaks.
According to Mayor Terri Courtney, Walton has not been following federal IRS rules regarding take-home vehicles, which exposes the city to liability in the case that the vehicle is involved in an accident off the clock.
“[This is] about liability on the city, liability on the taxpayers, circumventing IRS rules for however long the take-home policy has been. We’ve not handled it correctly,” she said, adding that city accountant Ben Harrison, an attorney for the Kentucky League of Cities, and an unspecified insurance expert have all advised the cities to terminate the use of take-home vehicles immediately. “Their opinion from their experience is that the city’s opening themselves to great liability by allowing take-home vehicles.”
City employees and officials alike say that there hasn’t been an accident involving a Public Works vehicle in recent years.
Under current IRS policy, business vehicles are considered fringe benefits when used to commute to and from work. Fringe benefits are taxable and must be included in the employee’s pay, and must be reported on W-2 tax forms and Wage and Tax Statements.
“In other words, if you’re using $400 a month in gas to and from your home on your personal time where you’re not clocked in with the city, it has to be reimbursed to the city,” Courtney said. “It would be seen as a benefit. [This] has never been seen as a benefit on our W-2 … Something has to change.”
A handful of public works and water works employees joined in discussion in opposition to the ordinance, sharing their concerns that eliminating take-home work vehicles would lengthen response times to emergencies, increase the wear and tear on their personal vehicles, and cause increased financial burdens by requiring them to pay for more gas.
“I’ve been here for 16 years, and when I was hired, I was hired with a truck [to drive] back and forth to work, emergencies, and everything else,” said Tom Ryan, a Public Works and Water Works employee since 2009. “If you take our trucks away from us, the response time to come in here and fix a water leak, remove snow, [go to] pump stations, is going to be really hurt. Plus, I don’t want to get in my personal vehicle after I’ve been in a mud hole most of the night.”
Walton City Council will likely revisit the measure at its next city council meeting on June 10.