Luxury Car Entitlement (911)

EDGAR CO – Let’s talk about bad decisions by the ETS Board this time. It appears we have, at least in the ETS (911), an entitlement mentality when it comes to our money. Little things like luxury automobiles, payment for meetings not attended, ever increasing cell phone bills, 100% medical-dental-vision-life insurance, and a 3 year contract (we know why you did that one, so don’t think you got away with it yet). There are many more examples, but for this article we’ll stick with the luxury automobile.

When the 911 coordinator position was first authorized, it was supposed to be a PART TIME position, but has since kept fleecing the taxpayers year after year. This was when the coordinator worked for the Sheriff Dept, and when they met up, divorced their spouses, then married each other – all while double dipping from the county taxpayers during the same working hours. When a new Sheriff gets elected, all of a sudden the coordinator doesn’t work for the Sheriff anymore – funny how that one worked out.

Initially the coordinator would keep track of her miles and turn in a claim to be reimbursed for mileage driven in the course of employment. That worked for awhile, until someone felt bad that she had to drive all the way from Chrisman to get to work.

To make a long story short, on November 26, 2008 the ETSB allowed the coordinator a luxury automobile (leather seats and all) (with 59 miles on it) to drive at-will to the tune of $750 per month (including $200 for fuel). Now she could ride around in style like she deserved to ride.

That wasn’t enough though, many months the fuel costs well exceeded the $200 allowance by the board, but she charged it to the taxpayer anyway. By September 16, 2009 this luxury automobile the taxpayers paid for had 18,322 miles on it (in 10 months) – all courtesy of you the taxpayer as very few of the miles were for the official business of 911. Instead, we paid for her to drive back and forth to work everyday from Chrisman toParis. One has to wonder whether all of the personal use of the luxury automobile was reported on her yearly income tax as income.

Anyway, when the luxury automobile was turned in on January 16, 2012 it had 55,119 miles on it. So in the end the taxpayers of this county paid out over $27,000.00 that did not need to be paid out, and with nothing to show for it. Now she will receive a “vehicle allowance” of approximately $500 per month. Calculated using the IRS mileage rate would equal over 900 miles per month, driven in the course of employment with the county. We know that doesn’t happen, so it must just be a bonus in order to get to work and back.

You can view the carfax report here.