by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Jim Overton has been a member of City Council for the better part of eight years. Until a few weeks ago, he had no idea there was a pool of City-owned vehicles available for Council use.
The recent use of a vehicle by Council member Dr. Gwen Chandler — last summer she checked a vehicle out for three days and returned it, three months later — has prompted Overton to sponsor an ordinance that would completely prohibit the use of City-owned vehicles by Council members.
“I didn’t even know Council members could check out City-owned vehicles,” said Overton, who is running for property appraiser. “I was surprised by what happened recently. There is no reason to have this happen again. It’s very unlikely any Council member needs to check out a City-owned car to do something.”
According to Chandler, obtaining a car from the City was a simple process that involved “making a request by letter or e-mail” to the motor pool.
She recently submitted a proposal to Council president Jerry Holland outlining a three-part procedure that should be followed in the event a Council member needed to borrow a City-owned vehicle. Overton said he’s not sure why a Council member would need to borrow a vehicle in the first place and added the Chandler memo prompted him meet with Council auditor Bob Johnson and an attorney from the General Counsel’s Office for the purpose of drawing his ordinance.
“The interesting thing about that memo is that it came out after the meeting in my office where the subject was discussed,” said Overton. “There’s a loophole that we’ve got to close. If a Council member needs to go to Orlando, they can take their own car or rent one.
“If we are keeping enough cars that at any moment a City Council member can pick one up, then we have too many cars. That’s no way to run our business. We need to tidy this up. I would hope this does not cause a lot of discussion and goes through with 19 votes.”
Holland said he didn’t know, either, that Council members had access to City vehicles. Like Overton, he also doesn’t understand the need to borrow a car.
“They pay our mileage if we go on a City trip, so it’s not like we don’t get compensated,” said Holland. “As long as they do that, there’s no need to borrow a car. I wouldn’t have a problem if we didn’t have access to vehicles.”
Holland also said he wouldn’t take sides on the issue right now. His primary desire is to either set strict guidelines for borrowing a vehicle or eradicate the issue altogether.
“If we go with Dr. Gwen’s suggestion, that’s fine. If we go with Councilman Overton’s suggestion and eliminate the use of vehicles, that’s fine, too,” said Holland. “That [Overton’s ordinance] may be the easiest way to solve the problem.”