22 responses so far ↓

• 1 UK Alumni // May 23, 2008 at 2:45 pm

  What a douche bag.

• 2 BILked // May 23, 2008 at 8:25 pm

  After making some phone calls, here where the questions need to be asked:

  Jonathan Miller, Finance Secretary has final approval
  Jana Smith, Commissioner Approver
  Forest Banta Director Fleet Management initiator and approver

• 3 BILked // May 23, 2008 at 8:27 pm

  Story found on WHAS — Mark Hebert. Gas was a hell of a lot cheaper in May 2007 so who knows how much it is costing state government now!!

  Story follows …

  How much are state vehicles costing taxpayers?

  12:28 AM EDT on Thursday, May 17, 2007

  That expensive gas you are buying to put in your personal car isn’t the only gas you’re paying for.

  We took a closer look at your tax dollars and found that you’re also paying for thousands of state government vehicles, the majority of them gas-guzzlers.

  You probably see them in Frankfort, Louisville, everywhere you go in Kentucky–passenger vehicles with state stickers and license plates. There are nearly 11, 000 of them.

  “Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent,” says Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute.

  We agree. But Kentucky has no idea if some of those state cars, take home cars, are being abused.

  Our review found the actual number of take home vehicles is much higher than the 924 reported by state agencies last year. But of those 924, 760 of them by our count are Crown Victorias, SUVs, or trucks.

  The state’s Fleet Manager says he can only hope take home vehicles for those workers are justified. “If they have an office they go to every day, they probably shouldn’t be using that take home vehicle,” says Delbert Berthold of Kentucky’s State Fleet Management.

  Berthold says he’d like to know if state employees are abusing their take home cars for personal trips. So he’s convinced his state bosses to buy 300 G.P.S. devices for a pilot project and would eventually like them in every state car:

  “Then we can begin to monitor the driving, the side trips, the speeds—anything that would cost the state taxpayer money,” says Berthold.

  Berthold believes most state employees are using their vehicles for state business. Again, there are a total of nearly 11,000 state vehicles. With about 68,000 full time employees, the state of Kentucky has one vehicle for every six workers.

  And the overwhelming majority of the state’s vehicles are big gas-guzzlers–they’re not fuel-efficient. Berthold, the man who oversees about half the state’s fleet, is trying to change that:

  Berthold says 692 gas-guzzlers are being replaced. The state is buying smaller vehicles like Jeep Compass’ to replace Expeditions, Impalas to replace Crown Victorias. “We’ve got to have fuel economy,” says Berthold.

  Some agencies like Fish and Wildlife and mine inspectors need big, off-road capable vehicles. But we uncovered e-mails that show other state agencies balking at downsizing their vehicles. The Agriculture Department demanded pursuit vehicles for investigators and said its employees couldn’t fit in Ford Focus. The Health Services’ Inspector General’s Office demanded a Suburban.

  “A year and a half ago there was a whole lot more resistance,” says Berthold. “But now they are realizing they have to make the changes to in order to balance their own budget.”

  The budget-buster is gasoline. The state shelled out more than $23 million for gas last year and that’s when prices were lower. The biggest spender was State Police at more than $4 million.

  Jim Waters’ group advocates smaller government. He says gas and vehicle costs for Kentucky taxpayers would decrease if the payroll would too. “Being in government, there is not really any incentive to save money,” he says. “There is no incentive to be more efficient.

  In case you were wondering, the state has purchased just 26 hybrid vehicles.

  Berthold says he can buy three Impalas for the price of one hybrid so right now, cost savings to the taxpayers are beating out savings to the environment.

• 4 Not My Real Name // May 23, 2008 at 9:48 pm

  Under Ernie Fletcher (remember him?) Transportation strictly curtailed the use of take-home vehicles by employees, especially those out in the state. At the time Fletcher went out of office, only the county foreman (24/7/365), assistant county foreman (during snow removal season) and the district safety officer were allowed to drive state vehicles home. All other district employees, including the chief engineer, branch managers and maintenance engineers, had to drive their personal vehicles.

  The current administration has reversed course and now lets a large number of other district office employees, whose workstations are the 12 offices located across the state, drive state vehicles home. This includes maintenance engineers and some branch managers who work primarily in offices. Other employees will drive their personal vehicles to work but four or five of them will pile in a state SUV or van and take that vehicle to lunch, which is a clear personal use of the state vehicle. Why can’t they drive their own private vehicles to Wendy’s or Arby’s for lunch instead of taking a state vehicle?

  So if you want to talk about abuse of state vehicles, take a good hard look at Beshear’s policies.

• 5 Lannie // May 23, 2008 at 9:53 pm

  Please check into the number of vehicles issued to Gov. Beshear’s staff as opposed to the staff of Gov. Fletcher. With the cost of the vehicles, gasoline, maintenance and insurance involved, I would love to know how many tax dollars are going toward this . I am told that when Jim Cauley came into the Governor’s Office, he could not believe that the previous chief- of- staff and other staff members of Gov. Fletcher did not have their own state cars to drive. I wonder if that has changed under the new “improved” administration. I also wonder if Gov. Beshear has commissioned that effeciency study (from the number of state employees on the payroll to the kind of lightbulbs we use) that he was so fond of promising during the campaign.

• 6 BILked // May 23, 2008 at 10:59 pm

  I know Fletcher eliminated all take home vehicles (except his own), even his Cabinet Secretaries quit driving them home. What was gas back then, $1.75? Now it’s $3.95 a gallon

  Franklin County schools are proposing a 10.5% increase in school taxes and Fiscal Court is looking at a 4% property tax increase but this Jon Draud guy who has a salary of:
  JON E DRAUD COMMISSIONER DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION KENTUCKY EXECUTIVE BRANCH – EDUCATION $220,000

  Can even Draud not afford to drive his own car to and from work?

• 7 Steve Bittenbender // May 23, 2008 at 11:10 pm

  According to fueleconomy.gov, there are two types of V-8 engines available for the Chrysler 300.

  The 5.7L V-8 MPG is 15 city/23 highway — comparable to the 3.5L V-6 (17/24).

  But there’s a 6.1L V-8 that gets 13/18. According to the Web site, the average annual cost of gas for this engine is $4,022. That’s based on 15,000 miles and 55 percent city driving.

  Comparatively, the smaller V-8′s estimated fuel cost is $3,161. The V-6′s is $2,843.

  Car companies are notorious for making certain options available only on certain models, so I’m not surprised that the GPS only comes with the V-8.

  That being said, you can buy a state-of-the-art GPS system for less than $500. Wouldn’t it be a better use of tax dollars to get the smaller engine and put the Tom-Tom on the dashboard?

• 8 Jake // May 23, 2008 at 11:13 pm

  People, people. This is government we’re talking about! NOT common sense!

  ha

  Saving money obviously isn’t a priority. Otherwise we wouldn’t buy gas hogs as fleet vehicles.

• 9 agri-angry // May 23, 2008 at 11:17 pm

  Where is that Fleet Management jerk Jeff Kiser on this issue? He went after my Commissioner Richie Farmer with a vengence when we requested a new car for him. He harrassed him the entire Fletcher administration. but I guess since the Democrats are back in power, they get a pass from him and fleet management.

  I wonder if state government will be getting rid of the same percentage of vehicles as retiree jobs that will not be filled. I think I read somewhere in the range of 3,300 positions will not get replaced. That would be 10% or 1,100 vehicles according to the story above. Thats a lot of gas saved.

  Hebert wrote “The budget-buster is gasoline. The state shelled out more than $23 million for gas last year and that’s when prices were lower. ”

  Since prices were lower in 2006 than 2007 …. 10% of $23mm is $2.3mm in 2006, could it be a gas savings of over $6mm in 2009?

  What about it Kiser? where is your badass now?

• 10 BILked // May 23, 2008 at 11:52 pm

  Steve B – I’ll use your stats to do a little MPG math to see how much in gasoline dollars it will cost for Draud to drive from his home in Edgewood, Ky to Frankfort

  Google maps says it is 95.3 miles each way from his house to Frankfort for a total of 190.6 miles per work day. I’ll add 10 miles for side trips and lunch each day and for easy math. Lets assume he drive 200 miles per workday.

  There are 260 work days per year times 200 miles per day equals 52,000 miles driven on the state taxpayers dime just to get to work so he can earn that $220,000 salary

  Lets say he averages 18 mpg. Divide that by the 52,000 miles he drives each year and you get 2,888 gallons of gasoline. Now lets multiply that by $3.95 (todays price) and his annual fuel cost is a massively huge $11,411.

  Son of a bitch!. No wonder he wants the taxpayers to pick up his gasoline charges.

  Whoever approved this kind of abuse of taxpayer dollars SHOULD BE FIRED. This is outrageous. I sure wish we could get our hands on the approval document so we could see all who approved this purchase.

  $11,411 for gasoline for a guy who makes $220,000 per year. And we will not replace social workers who take care of the most vunerable of Kentucky’s children.

  When will we start voting in people who will really hire people who DESIRE to make state government the most efficient it can possibly be.
  I think Beshear needs to start over with his hires.

• 11 hahaha // May 24, 2008 at 1:03 am

  Richie Farmer and his vehicle that he requested and hammering this Kiser guy? Farmer didn’t want just any vehicle…it’s an Expedition (one of the biggest road hogs). It had to have power seats and all that shit because he claimed his back needed it…I guess like he needed those rumored dozens of tickets to events through the Fair Board for him and his buddies and family that he didn’t pay for until Jim Host forced him to pay for. Maybe he needed it for those rumored interns and young staffers to ride in. Maybe he needed it for all the Democrats holding jobs in his office who have written check after check to Beshear, Luallen, Conway, and others then prances around like he’s the big Republican who’s gonna run for governor. If Republicans only knew…

• 12 agri-angry // May 24, 2008 at 2:25 am

  Commissioner Farmer drives a Chevrolet Tahoe you moron.

  If you are going to go after our next Governor, at least get your facts straight.

• 13 hahaha // May 24, 2008 at 8:42 am

  ok it’s a Tahoe…as for the rest of that post….?

• 14 Bilked // May 24, 2008 at 10:50 am

  Well ……. You seem to be correct and maybe even more than you think. I went to KREF and looked up the bosses and it showed his non-merits and others donated as much or more to Beshear than they did to their employer, Commissioner Farmer.

  It looks like its time for a loyalty review and if what I saw is correct, then its time for Richie to dump some of his upper management and get some people that are loyal to him. (financially and otherwise!)

• 15 Bilked // May 24, 2008 at 10:56 am

  I don’t know of any young staffers at Agriculture. They seem kind of old to me, in their 50′s maybe.

  Otherwise, your post is essentially correct

  I left something out. If he doesn’t get people with his interests at heart, then he will lose his next election and they will become unemployed

• 16 Not My Real Name // May 24, 2008 at 10:22 pm

  This same thing happened to Fletcher. I understand that a lot of his appointees supported Beshear and some of them even leaked information to the special prosecutor — and I wonder how many actually testified instead of taking the Fifth as anyone loyal to Fletcher should have done?

  Someone with time ought to compare the list of non-merits during the last year of Fletcher’s administration to the political contributions. Or Fletcher’s people should have been doing that as the contributions were made and anyone giving to Beshear should have been summarily fired.

• 17 duh? // May 24, 2008 at 10:56 pm

  It’s actually much easier to see which non-merits in the Fletcher administration were actually not supporting their bosses and that were leaking info (support) to Beshear…the ones still on the payroll are likely candidates…like Mark York, Tommy Greenwell, Boyd Sigler, Stephanie Stumbo, Tom Canadi, Bruce Scott, Carol Martin, Dan Egbers…

• 18 BILked // May 25, 2008 at 3:00 am

  Does anyone give a shit about the $11,411 per year in gasoline costs the taxpayers are paying so this political hack can drive to and from home?

  Duh, — What about all the hacks Beshear has brought back from the Patton Administration?

• 19 Bimbeau // May 25, 2008 at 6:38 am

  Draud is a Fletcher product. He should never have been hired and we’re stuck with him. We are also stuck with lease contracts signed by the Fletcher people. Messes like this are not visible before they occur. Any one of you out there who says he could have prevented it is just another apologist for the failed Fletcher administration.
  If … as reported the Bedhear Chief-of-staff was surprised by no take-home for Cave, did Cave get to ride home in a unmarked State Police car with cop-driver? I think SOOOOOOooooo!
  Don’t even think that Fletcher was less corrupt than Beshear. Until Beshear is indicted he’s not corrupt. Fletcher will always find a way to enhance his moral degradation and seek even more ways to corrupt others.

• 20 Not My Real Name // May 25, 2008 at 9:13 am

  Egbers is scum, we all know that.

  Stephanie Stumbo, daughter of Dr. Grady Stumbo, is married to the son of one of the most prominent Republicans along the US 23 corridor.

• 21 FunnyStuff // Jun 27, 2008 at 11:22 pm

  “some of them even leaked information to the special prosecutor — and I wonder how many actually testified instead of taking the Fifth as anyone loyal to Fletcher should have done?”

  Typical Republican attitude there: protecting a corrupt bunch of lawbreakers and thwarting justice was more important to Fletcher loyalists than getting accurate information out there.

  If Fletcher’s people had not been breaking the law then there would have been no need for anyone to take the Fifth. In fact, that’s only available for people who would incriminate themselves if they testified.

  It is funny that those corrupt lawbreakers prove their wrongdoing like that, then squeal that it was all a witchhunt.

• 22 Not My Real Name // Jun 28, 2008 at 10:19 am

  Anybody can plead the Fifth.

  Do you not remember Fletcher’s statement the night before he appeared before the grand jury?

  He basically said, “Screw you, Stumbo. I don’t recognize the validity of this inquisition because I know the true purpose behind it. I have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury and I shall comply with the subpoena as the law requires, but that’s as far as it goes. You’ll get no help from me. I refuse to tell them anything.”

  You can’t just say, “I’m not going to tell you,” when subpoenaed. You have to take the Fifth, whether or not your testimony would be self-incriminating, because it’s the only vehicle available.

  Lots of people took the Fifth in that investigation who were not targets of the grand jury and were in no danger of being indicted. They did so because they did not want to participate in the hatchet job being done to the first GOP administration in three decades, not because they had something to hide.

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